David Baddiel publishes 'My Family: The Memoir'

Thursday 16th May 2024, 12:01pm by Jay Richardson

David Baddiel's book about his eccentric family comes out this summer.

My Family: The Memoir will be published by Fourth Estate on 4th July.

The comic has previously recounted his mother's affair and his father's dementia in the stand-up show My Family: Not The Sitcom, which as British Comedy Guide revealed in November, will air on Sky later this year.

Described as a "candid examination of his childhood, family and memory offering a twisted love letter to his parents", My Family: The Memoir recalls how Baddiel's childhood was fairly standard: a lower-middle-class Jewish family living in an ordinary house in Dollis Hill, north-west London.

But he came to realise that his mother was in fact not ordinary at all. Having escaped extermination by fleeing Nazi Germany as a child, she was desperate to make her life count, which took the form of a passionate, decades-long affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman. His detailing of the affair - including how his mother turned their household over to golf memorabilia, and an eye-popping cache of her erotic writings - leads to the inescapable conclusion that Sarah Baddiel was a cross between Jack Nicklaus and Erica Jong.

Meanwhile, as Baddiel investigates his family's past, his father's memories are fading; dementia is making him moodier and more disinhibited, with an even greater penchant for obscenity.

Fourth Estate promises that "there is both comedy and poignancy to be found: laughter is a constant presence, capable of transforming the darkest of experiences into something redemptive".

Speaking to the Sunday Times in February, Baddiel revealed that he is already planning his next book, The Male Gaze, about masculinity. And last month it was announced that he has signed a deal with HarperCollins Children's Books for two further kids titles, Small Fry and Flying South.

My Family: The Memoir is available to pre-order now.

David Baddiel - My Family: The Memoir

By David Baddiel

A searingly honest, funny and moving family memoir in which David Baddiel exposes his mother's idiosyncratic sex life, and his father's dementia, to the same affectionate scrutiny.

On the surface, David Baddiel's childhood was fairly standard: a lower-middle-class Jewish family living in an ordinary house in Dollis Hill, north-west London. But David came to realise that his mother was in fact not ordinary at all. Having escaped extermination by fleeing Nazi Germany as a child, she was desperate to make her life count, which took the form of a passionate, decades-long affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman. David's detailing of the affair - including a hilarious focus on how his mother turned their household over to golf memorabilia, and an eye-popping cache of her erotic writings - leads to the inescapable conclusion that Sarah Baddiel was a cross between Jack Niklaus and Erica Jong.

Meanwhile, as Baddiel investigates his family's past, his father's memories are fading; dementia is making him moodier and more disinhibited, with an even greater penchant for obscenity. As with his mother's affair, there is both comedy and poignancy to be found: laughter is a constant presence, capable of transforming the darkest of experiences into something redemptive.

My Family: The Memoir is David Baddiel's candid examination of his childhood, family and memory offering a twisted love letter to his parents.

First published: Thursday 4th July 2024

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