Have you read Dawn French’s “Dear Fatty” yet? This is a beautiful, hopeful, lovely and sweet book, by a woman who is obviously beautiful, hopeful, lovely and sweet. I can’t express how much I enjoyed reading it. The sort of book that adds hope to your day – no matter how heart breaking some of the stories are – especially about her Dad. In fact, try holding back the tears when she talks through her feelings over her Father’s suicide – all in the longest sentence I’ve ever read – amazing!It’s a bird’s eye view into the life of someone most of us have been touched by and it’s very human, very real and it makes you want to have a cup of coffee and a chat with her to see how she’s doing. There was some news recently that Dawn and Lenny Henry have split up, and if you’ve read this book you get their relationship, so it makes the news almost personal. Most celebrities split and it’s a chance for gossip, these guys split and your heart goes out to them.

It’s also a really unusual way of writing a book and this appealed to me tremendously. Every chapter is a letter to someone in her life. Her Dad, Jennifer Saunders, the rest of her family and many more folks important to her – so that’s a really cool quality of the book. It also deals with her attitude to her weight, fame, family, marriage, adopting her daughter, and many other things.

It really is a cracking yarn and well worth a read, as it’s about a magnificent woman who succeeded in a world of comedy, a world still dominated by men.

I remember the first time I saw French and Saunders right at the beginning of their careers. They were two school girls in The Comic Strip’s “Bad News Tour” – post Young Ones. Remember that? Bloody funny stuff. I still hang out the window sticking my fingers up saying “ya fucking slappers” – I’ve really got to grow up don’t I?

Anyway great book and I think Dawn French is ace!

Yours, without the bollocks
Andrea