I’ve tradtionally not been a big book reader. Ultimately referring to read photo-laden magazines rather than pages and pages of non-illustrated text, one of my few New Year’s resolutions for 2012 was to read more books. The current ‘to read’ pile numbers around 10 books, strangely all autobiographies I now realise, and that’s how I’ve started 2012, finishing off one celebrity autobiography that I started on a European train holiday back in November. And I completed it this morning, so dear reader, how was Dear Fatty ?
I’ve long been a fan of TV comedy duo French and Saunders, right from the energetic early days, through the middling output, and even when the pair got slightly tired in their last series. Their solo projects have been ones to watch, too, so I was looking forward to reading Dawn French’s autobiography, which is written as a series of letters. Letters to her beloved father, her best friend, childhood sweethearts, her (now ex) husband Lenny Henry, Madonna, and her partner in comedy crime, Jennifer Saunders (aka ‘Fatty’).
Flitting between distant memories and recent recollections, Dawn French’s stories are both heart-warming and hilariously funny, leading me to read passages aloud, sharing her comic anecdotes. Light-hearted as you’d expect from a comic actress, yes, but the 366 pages also touch on more sensitive and serious moments, and when this happens, Dawn writes with such sincerity and feeling, the emotions she was feeling at these times are entirely believable. The letters format works well, each individual ode taking the place of a chapter, enabling easy ‘pick up and drop’ reading.
From her childhood as an RAF girl and her early teaching years, through to her hugely successful career as a comic actress in The Comic Strip, The Vicar of Dibley, Murder Most Horrid and of course, French and Saunders, Dawn French writes honestly and candidly, sprinkling her wicked humour throughout. An enlightening, extremely humourous and well-written book, Dear Fatty is more than worthy on anyone’s celebrity autobiography (or for that matter, anyone’s) bookshelf.
- Dear Fatty by Dawn French, Arrow Books 2009, ISBN 978-0099519478

