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Oct 5, 2024 6:43 PM

Author:Simon Amstell

Help

'A beautiful and clever book about being human' Russell Brand

COMEDY. TRAGEDY. THERAPY.

Simon Amstell did his first stand-up gig at the age of thirteen. His parents had just divorced and puberty was confusing. Trying to be funny solved everything.

HELP is the hilarious and heartbreaking account of Simon’s ongoing compulsion to reveal his entire self on stage. To tell the truth so it can’t hurt him any more. Loneliness, anxiety, depression – this book has it all. And more.

From a complicated childhood in Essex to an Ayahuasca-led epiphany in the Amazon rainforest, this story will make you laugh, cry and then feel happier than you’ve ever been.

Reviews

A beautiful and clever book about being human. All the warmth of his comedy without the inconvenience of his face

—— Russell Brand

Hard to imagine anyone not loving this... go Simon Amstell!

—— Stephen Fry

Disarmingly, almost alarmingly, honest. I laughed out loud 57 times

—— Martin Freeman

No one makes loneliness and anxiety as funny as Simon Amstell. Every sentence in this book is simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious

—— Hadley Freeman

Enrapturing. Touching, funny and sweet

—— Alain de Botton

Puts the fun in 'insanely honest introspection fun'

—— Adam Buxton

A brilliantly funny, sad, clever, silly book. I loved it!

—— Matt Lucas

Amstell is a likable, self-deprecating guide to his own flaws, and has spent enough time in therapy to dissect his own navel-gazing with a nicely dry self-awareness

—— Stephanie Merritt , Observer

Hilarious and heart-breaking… Simon’s unique take on the world is a reminder of the absurdity of life and the humour that can be found even in its darkest moments. Genuinely life-affirming, moving and profoundly funny

—— Attitude

Compulsively, excruciatingly honest… An heroically spiky, self-excavating read about family, fame, sex and self-discovery

—— Alice Jones , i

This book blends some of the best moments from his tours to date with some eye-wateringly honest anecdotes from his life so far

—— Adam Ouxbury , Wing Magazine

It’s inevitable that Simon Amstell’s memoir doesn’t fit the usual mould… In Help..., he cranks up the honesty: alongside excerpts of scripts from his shows, he relates the source material, often in almost painful depth. Depression, an unhappy childhood, family rifts – all feature in what Amstell, typically acerbic, describes as a “heroic act of self-annihiliation”

—— Hannah Shaddock , Radio Times

Amstell is evocative and wittily self-aware about his upbringing as a painfully shy, socially awkward boy in Romford… Amstell’s writing often contains profundity alongside morsels of pithy wit

—— Steve Bennett , Chortle

Stand-up transcripts interspersed with touching personal confessions – love, sexuality, self-discovery – in his trademark sardonic style

—— Sarah Flynn , Irish Times

Amstell is one of the UK’s best stand-ups and this beautifully written memoir… Is a gem. It is brutally, excruciatingly honest about his dysfunctional family, his sexual awakening, his comedy career and his struggles with anxiety. It is also laugh-out-loud-on-public-transport funny.

—— Alice Jones , i

Help provides a fascinating insight into Amstell’s life… a unique discussion on the role and purpose of comedy in our society as a means to protect ourselves and others, but also as means to reveal our most vulnerable states

—— Thomas Bransby , BJGP

Joyful nostalgia

—— Daily Express

As a hard-nosed ex-detective, it was a source of much hilarity that I am such a Wham! fan but my copy of this is a prized possession

—— Peter Bleksley

One of the most interesting feminist voices in popular culture

—— The Pool
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