The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

HUMOUR

A Carnival of Snackery

Diaries 2003-2020

by David Sedaris

Little, Brown £20

The second instalment from

the American humourist who

has a Sussex rubbish truck

named after him covers a

great sweep of recent history,

but it is the minutiae rather

than the big/depressing

events that make him such

pleasing company. An entry,

for example, on the revelation

that spiders (“if they felt like

it”) could devour everyone on

Earth in a year ends with him

wondering how a spider feels

when it’s rescued from a bath.

Grateful or dismissive? These

are the important questions.

What Is Your Problem?

by Jack Dee

Quercus £20

During lockdown, comedy’s

“little ray of sleet” retrained

as a psychotherapist. Or

rather he took a three-hour

online course with the Ruislip

Institute of Advansed Learning

(sic) and then took to Twitter

to “help” his “patients”. This

is the result — a compendium

of serious problems from his

followers (my sex life is awful/

I have no self-confidence/I’m

a shoplifter) and hilariously

unsympathetic solutions from

Dee. A timely resurgence of

the pull-yourself-together

school of therapy.

Theroux the Keyhole

Diaries of a Grounded

Documentary Maker

by Louis Theroux

Macmillan £20

Theroux has spent his career

exploring the weird fringes of

civilisation, hanging out with

survivalists, swingers and Neil

and Christine Hamilton. But

like the rest of us he spent last

year hanging out at home

with his new friends: alcohol

moving blend of history

and travelogue Egremont

explores the overlooked little

countries of Estonia and

Latvia, caught for centuries

between the rival

powerhouses of Sweden,

Germany and Russia. Weaving

between past and present,

he uncovers vanished Baltic

baronies and abandoned

manor houses, nationalist

poets and Teutonic knights,

buried secrets and devastating

atrocities. Above all he evokes

a very particular mood:

a blend of guilt, sadness,

melancholy and nostalgia,

hanging like a fog over the

Baltic forests. c

elusive. With painstaking

research and imaginative

sympathy, Hutton recreates

his world from the ground up.

Starting in the fields of East

Anglia, he follows Cromwell to

the House of Commons and

battlefields of the Civil War,

teasing out the tensions

between his deep religious

faith and political ambition.

A landmark biography and

model of historical scholarship.

The Glass Wall

Lives on the Baltic Frontier

by Max Egremont

Picador £25

In this haunting, often very

Watching Neighbours

Twice a Day

How ‘90s TV (Almost)

Prepared Me for Life

by Josh Widdicombe

Bonnier £20

The idea that television

defines your childhood may

no longer be true (thanks,

the internet) but for Nineties

kid and comedian Josh

Widdicombe, who grew up in

the middle of Dartmoor, his

portal to the outside world

was the box. This half-

memoir, half-cultural history

is a light and engaging read,

but it’s also a reminder of how

quickly time marches on. The

truth is out there. Blobby

blobby blobby. Gladiators,

ready! Aha! If any of that

means anything to you, you’ll

love it.

Official Sir Cliff Richard

2022 Calendar

£9.99

Is a calendar a book? Not

technically, but I’m making an

exception for this magnificent

tour de fromage. January and

Sir Cliff, 81, is grinning in a

stairwell. By May he’s rowing

alone across a lake, and by

August he’s in a pool drinking,

I think, orange squash. A

harsher critic may note that

the smile wanes as the year

progresses. By December it’s

more resigned grimace by a

log-burner. But isn’t that how

we all feel? c

Game for a laugh

Columnist Matt Rudd picks the comedians and entertainers

who’ve made him giggle most (not forgetting Cliff Richard)

Potting stars Bob Mortimer

with fellow comic Vic Reeves

and Joe Wicks. Is it too soon

to be reminded of that

locked-down year? I found it

strangely therapeutic. It

shows, like much of his work,

that we are more alike than

we are different.

And Away...

by Bob

Mortimer

Simon &

Schuster

£20

National treasure status has

been conferred on the

Middlesbrough-born

comedian thanks to show-

stealing performances on

Would I Lie to You? and his

terrible balance and pocket

meat on Gone Fishing.

Alternating between his

recovery from heart surgery

in 2015 and the traumas of

his childhood — his father’s

sudden death, his crippling

shyness, his depression —

this memoir sounds grim.

How, then, can it be the

most life-affirming, joyful

read of the year? Worth it

alone for the nickname of

his big-headed team-mate

(the Sniper’s Dream) and

his limping headmaster

(the Sniper’s Nightmare).

OUR BOOK

OF THE YEAR

BRENDAN O’SULLIVAN/SHUTTERSTOCK

28 November 2021 35