Let’s Do It
Jasper Rees
Trapeze, £20
Victoria Wood’s children Grace and Henry gave Jasper Rees permission to write this biography of the comedy legend, allowing access to her audio diary, manuscripts, letters and photo albums.
Wood was the youngest of four children, and the most riveting part of the book covers her lonely childhood.
“We had no proper rules at all,” reveals one of Wood’s two sisters. Solitary and unsupervised, Wood busied herself with playing the piano, reading, watching TV and eating. But after three years
studying drama at Birmingham University, Wood won a heat of the New Faces TV talent show in 1974.
She produced songs and plays and wrote TV’s Wood And Walters with lifelong friend Julie Walters. But it was several years before she found her voice as Britain’s first female stand-up comedian.
After that, there was no stopping her. She was a perfectionist with a talent for making ordinary life funny and surreal in sitcom Dinnerladies and sketches such as Acorn Antiques. In 1993, she sold out the Royal Albert Hall for 16 nights.
Rees’s biography is a must-read for her fans, also covering her marriage break-up and her final illness.
He interviewed her ex-husband, magician Geoffrey Durham, and close friends including Walters and Dawn French. This meticulously researched account of her life shows what a loss she is.
BY EMMA LEE-POTTER
Life’s What You Make It
Phillip Schofield
Michael Joseph, £20
In his soul-baring autobiography, Schofield insists he “absolutely” didn’t know he was gay when he married wife Steph, and that he wasn’t forced to come out.
He recalls a happy childhood in Cornwall and the early years of his broadcasting career. Fans of This Morning will love inside stories of his 18 years on the show, especially his partnerships with Fern Britton and Holly Willoughby (“the sister I never had”).
The first half is a gallop through his life and career, the second an account of his decision to come out. It’s candid, brave and highly readable.
BY EMMA LEE-POTTER
Limitless
Tim Peake
Century, £20
In 2016, Major Tim Peake became the first British astronaut to complete a spacewalk on the International Space Station. In the six-month mission, he conducted research, ran the London marathon on a treadmill and presented a Brit award to Adele.
The teenage Peake joined the Army Air Corps, became a helicopter pilot and later served in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Then wife Rebecca spotted an advert for new astronauts. He was one of six chosen from more than 8,400.
Full of courage, camaraderie and daring escapades, this reads like a Boys’ Own adventure.
BY EMMA LEE-POTTER
Because Of You
Dawn French
Penguin, £20
Two women give birth on a maternity ward as the clock ticks towards a new millennium: Hope, a cleaner, who has a gentle Sierra Leonean boyfriend Quiet Isaac; and Anna, married to cheating MP Julius.
After Hope and Isaac’s baby girl is stillborn, Hope does something that will change both couples’ lives.
French moves between the aftermath of that night and 18 years later, when the explosive impact of Hope’s actions is felt. Because Of You is told with warmth and verve by a storyteller who never takes herself too seriously.
BY ROSIE HOPEGOOD
A Life On Our Planet
David Attenborough
Witness Books, £20
Sir David Attenborough does his utmost here to warn the world about the “dreadful things” humanity has done to the planet, the ecological catastrophe we’ll face if we don’t change our ways, and his vision.
He believes if we act now, it isn’t too late to “restore the rich, healthy and wonderful world we inherited from our distant ancestors”.
Attenborough excels at bringing science and nature to life. Peppered with photographs and stories about his extraordinary expeditions, this is an important book with an important message. Everyone should read it.
BY EMMA LEE-POTTER
Join the Mirror Book Club
Come and join our friendly Mirror Book Club community on Facebook! Members share thoughts on our book of the month, post their recommendations, from thrillers and romances to memoirs, and there are regular giveaways too. This month, Mirror Book Club members voted We Know You Know by Erin Kelly the book of the month.
A woman returns to live in the run-down Suffolk town where she grew up, hoping that a secret from her teenage years will remain hidden. What is the connection with a woman wrongly committed to a 1950s asylum?
We’d love you to give We Know You Know a read and let the Mirror Book Club know what you think at facebook.com/groups/mirrorbookclub. We’ll print your feedback here on October 23.
