I wanted to love this, and it wasn’t awful, but it maybe wasn’t quite as fun as I was hoping for. It definitely had it’s moments, don’t get me wrong, but maybe a bit more earnest/preachy stuff than I expected. Overall I enjoyed it, I maybe just went into it with too high expectations.
The best bits for me were:
- When he listed his (many) nemeses including Alan Sugar, people who say holibobs, and the Nissan Qashqai (and there’s space in the back for you to do the same)
- When his wife Bella lists boring things he does and he tries to defend them.
- His recounting in the last chapter of his meeting with Paul Chuckle and his wife. The warmth and affection he spoke of him with was just lovely.
What I didn’t enjoy was his attitude towards Christians and Christianity. Granted he did talk about respecting what people believe in one sentence, but in the next said it was bats**t crazy. Not great. There were a couple of other similarly insulting references in the book too.
But if I just let them go over my head, then the book was worth a read once, it just might end up in Oxfam rather than my bookcase.
And as per usual, some quotes:
- “Growing is largely seen as a good thing. I suppose it is. Trees growing big and strong is nice. Same with people. But I know loads of happy short people. I’ve also seen loads of happy tiny trees. Conversely, ‘growing’ is bad if it’s Japanese knotweed. Or verrucas.” (though he later says it’s crucial to grow as a person, so who knows)
- “A lunchtime bath or a dinner bath are also good. I’ve been known to Deliveroo a pad thai to coincide with the bubbles reaching their optimum altitude. Normalise the pad thai bubble bath please. If you don’t have a bath, earnestly ask a friend who does have one if you can use it for the day. Their reaction alone will be worth it.”
- “I can’t believe that there’s an ACTUAL ANIMAL in my house: a weird creature that can’t talk and is just living with us as if it’s the most normal thing.”
ineke.co.uk 