David Mitchell: Back Story

David Mitchell

Oct 2012 · Sold by HarperCollins UK

About this ebook

David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look, has written a book about his life.

As well as giving a specific account of every single time he's scored some smack, this disgusting memoir also details:

• the singular, pitbull-infested charm of the FRP (‘Flat Roofed Pub’)
• the curious French habit of injecting everyone in the arse rather than the arm
• why, by the time he got to Cambridge, he really, really needed a drink
• the pain of being denied a childhood birthday party at McDonalds
• the satisfaction of writing jokes about suicide
• how doing quite a lot of walking around London helps with his sciatica
• trying to pretend he isn’t a total **** at Robert Webb’s wedding
• that he has fallen in love at LOT, but rarely done anything about it
• why it would be worse to bump into Michael Palin than Hitler on holiday
• that he’s not David Mitchell the novelist. Despite what David Miliband might think

Ratings and reviews

You would think Google of all entities would know one David Mitchell from another. Currently the description and "more from author" sections detail the life and work of the author David Mitchell, who wrote Cloud Atlas and other novels, not the comedian and actor David Mitchell who wrote this memoir. If you realise what you are buying here then you'll likely enjoy it, Mitchell's personality shines through the enjoyable anecdotes and self-analysis.

While I'm not a fan of Peep Show, I've enjoyed pretty much everything else that David Mitchell has done over the years. He's a master of witty, language-based humour in the best tradition of that genre of British humour. I can't get enough of it. Loved this book and 'Thinking about it only makes it worse' as well as 'Dishonesty is the second best policy'.

Great insight into a genuinely comical man who is refreshingly honest about his awkwardly ambitious self.

About the author

David Mitchell is a comedian, actor and writer. He stars in Peep Show, writes for the Observer, co-hosts 10 O'Clock Live, has appeared in every TV or radio panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Quote Unquote and A League Of Their Own and has been in two films neither of which made a profit. He is married, childless and the polysyllabic member of the double-act 'Mitchell and Webb'. Soon he will do more.