The Life of Lee

Lee Evans

Sep 2011 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

Lee Evans is one of the best-loved comedians in the country; a Hollywood star able to sell out arenas in the blink of eye.

But he was not always such a roaring success.
The Life of Lee is an utterly hilarious and very moving autobiography charting his ups and downs on the way to the top. Lee takes us on a darkly humorous journey through his childhood spent running wild on a Bristol housing estate and his unconventional school days, when he was publicly derided as 'a failure' by a sadistic teacher.

In this brilliantly entertaining and engaging tale, he also guides us through a grim teenage period of numerous dead-end jobs. When he was cleaning toilets and plucking turkeys, he could never have imagined that one day he would be playing to thousands of adoring fans at the O2 Arena.

The book also reveals how as a boy Lee got his first taste of showbiz, living out of a suitcase and accompanying his entertainer father around the smoky, rowdy, unforgiving working-men's club and theatre circuit.

Desperately struggling to be accepted, this quiet young loner always saw himself as an outsider. But he finally met the love of his life and accidentally discovered the one place where he felt at home: the stage.

The Life of Lee is a story that is like its subject: compelling, touching, charming and, above all, fantastically funny.

Ratings and reviews

This is a must-read for any Lee Evans fans. I was fascinated to read all about his childhood and was surprised by all the things that happened to him. When you read about how much his family struggled for money and to get by and how he did too when he first left home you realise where his humbleness and gratitude for what he has comes from. Always a down-to-earth and normal man, this book makes you realise why. By the end I really felt like I knew Lee and could see where his personality and the way he acts and behaves comes from which was really enjoyable. His honesty is admirable and makes him very relatable. He talks about living in his own world in his mind which I totally understand and "get". He proves himself to be a fantastic writer and should get credit for writing this book himself. The writing drew me in and I could not put the book down. The only disappointment for me was that the book ended at the age of 18. I wanted to read more and to know about how his career built to what it is today and what he made of it all. It would have been nice to read about his family and home life as it is today too. I really hope there is a second book as there is still so much to tell. Having said that, the ending of the book was perfectly written and the closing sentence was very touching. The poem at the back of the book dedicated and written for his late nephew Max was beautiful and made me cry! I may be biased, as a massive Lee Evans fan, but I am even more so now! I love this man and this book demonstrate why so many people do!

l love Lee Evans. he's got funny bones. his book both sad and hilarious.god loves a Trier and he certainly had him on his side eventually.

Okay so im a huge Lee Evans fan anyway but I never thought the book would be THIS good! He is incredibly witty throughout, something I kept laughing out loud too. Buy it, you won't regret it! :)

About the author

In November 2005, the comedian Lee Evans smashed the world record by playing to the largest ever comedy audience, 10,108 people at the Manchester Evening News Arena. The record merely underlined his status as the most popular comedian in the UK.

A former boxer, Lee went on to break more records. On his 'Big' tour of 2008, he sold more than 500,000 tickets on fifty-nine arena dates. He has now sold in excess of four million DVDs.

The Perrier Award-winning comedian, who was born in Bristol in 1964, has also enjoyed great success as a movie star, headlining in such films as There's Something About Mary, MouseHunt, The Fifth Element, The Martins and the critically acclaimed Funny Bones.

In addition, he has made a big splash in West End shows such as the musical, The Producers (with Nathan Lane), Endgame (with Sir Michael Gambon) and The Dumb Waiter (with Jason Isaacs), receiving numerous theatre awards along the way.

Lee has been happily married to Heather for twenty-seven years. They live in Essex and have a daughter called Mollie.