| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'One of the smartest, funniest and most sweet-natured people I ever encountered (Stephen Fry on Linda Smith )
The world is sadder and more tender for Smiths tragic loss (Maureen Lipman )
'Razor-sharp and cuddly at the same time (The Sunday Times )
'One of the best-loved and funniest voices on the radio' (Evening Standard )
Genuinely uplifting a memoir from the heart, and a fitting tribute to one of Britains wittiest women (Word magazine )
'Irreplaceable' (Radio Times )
The world is sadder and more tender for Smiths tragic loss (Maureen Lipman )
'Razor-sharp and cuddly at the same time (The Sunday Times )
'One of the best-loved and funniest voices on the radio' (Evening Standard )
Genuinely uplifting a memoir from the heart, and a fitting tribute to one of Britains wittiest women (Word magazine )
'Irreplaceable' (Radio Times )
Product Description
In February 2006 the comedian Linda Smith died from ovarian cancer. Over the previous ten years Linda had established herself as one of the nation's funniest and best-loved comedians, voted the ‘wittiest person alive’ by BBC Radio 4 listeners. As any regular listener will testify, Linda was an acerbic political commentator, but she also had an eye for the absurdities of modern life – an eye to rival Alan Bennett or Victoria Wood. In DRIVING MISS SMITH, Warren Lakin, Linda’s partner for twenty-three years, tells Linda’s life story, of growing up in a town called Erith, which wasn’t twinned with anywhere, ‘but does have a suicide pact with Dagenham,’ and of becoming a much-loved Radio 4 fixture. It is a witty and moving memoir, and although it ends sadly, it is ultimately a hopeful book and a fitting tribute to a life filled with warmth, courage and laughter.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I loved Linda Smith on Radio 4, and also come from South East London myself, so was keen to read this book. It did not disappoint. Like all good biographies, it showed how the subject came to be what she was, by detailing the who, where, why and when of her life. It was also written with love and admiration by her nearest and dearest. I saw a Daily Mail review online, which said it did not touch on why they didn't have children. I don't think the book needs to be explicit about that, because it gives us plenty of facts from which to draw our own conclusions. Linda's parents had a turbulent and abusive marriage; Linda suffered from endometriosis; she was a gregarious, free-spirited person who loved her career and relationship with the public and was intelligent enough to realise how difficult it would be to mix parenthood with all that. Her early adult life is full of partying into the night, and her latter years lapse into cups of tea and National Trust property visiting fairly seamlessly. I don't think I needed to know quite so much about her favourite tv programmes, but it was interesting to learn of her recent ancestry and the influence of the author on her life. When a person dies so young, I also want to know exactly what killed them, and there is a fair amount of detail on her ovarian cancer which I think it was right and proper to include.
It seems an honest and sincere account. We hear how she dipped into Christianity in her early life, but we also learn how she came to be president of the Humanist Society in the last 2 years of her life. I now know that she knew she was dying when she accepted that position. I wonder if the Humanist Society knew too.
It seems an honest and sincere account. We hear how she dipped into Christianity in her early life, but we also learn how she came to be president of the Humanist Society in the last 2 years of her life. I now know that she knew she was dying when she accepted that position. I wonder if the Humanist Society knew too.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Warren Lakin was Linda Smith's partner for over twenty years and his memoirs are personal, detailed and affectionate. To be honest I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I had total admiration for Linda Smith, she was fiercely intelligent, very, very funny and managed to carve a successful career in a world dominated by men and the 'old school' establishment without losing an ounce of dignity or what made her such a fantastic performer.
This does shine through in the book, and the excerpts from her interviews and shows are superb. The author is thorough and gives lots of loving details to the background to her development as an artist, as well as thoughts on the deeper psychological aspects of what made her who she is.
What I found difficult at times was the minutiae and listiness of some of the material. The fact that there is a whole chapter dedicated to the television programmes she watched, or the day trips she liked to take. I felt a bit of judicious editing would not have gone amiss. It was at times like this that I feel that the author was simply spilling information onto the page in an attempt to fix or capture the woman that he loved that was gone. It was almost like reading a diary and I found it weirdly uncomfortable and unnecessary.
I understand that the book was written not long after her death and this may have had something to do with it. Nevertheless, a loving memoir told by a man who clearly adored her and obviously still suffers her loss.
This does shine through in the book, and the excerpts from her interviews and shows are superb. The author is thorough and gives lots of loving details to the background to her development as an artist, as well as thoughts on the deeper psychological aspects of what made her who she is.
What I found difficult at times was the minutiae and listiness of some of the material. The fact that there is a whole chapter dedicated to the television programmes she watched, or the day trips she liked to take. I felt a bit of judicious editing would not have gone amiss. It was at times like this that I feel that the author was simply spilling information onto the page in an attempt to fix or capture the woman that he loved that was gone. It was almost like reading a diary and I found it weirdly uncomfortable and unnecessary.
I understand that the book was written not long after her death and this may have had something to do with it. Nevertheless, a loving memoir told by a man who clearly adored her and obviously still suffers her loss.
Format:Hardcover
Memoirs of loved ones can be a bit maudling and reading them seem like intruding on private grief. Not this one. Although the love comes shining through, it's as much a travel guide to days out in Southern England as it is a sociological document of how it was to be young, gifted and working class in the Britain of the nineteen sixties or to be part of the non-silent majority, "moaning Minnies" of the Thatcher era. Of course, the wit's there: some of her lines are destined to be ageless. It's a mighty long way from coal face radical to Radio Four darling and this is well worth a read. Recommended.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
