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Digital Audiobook
Odd Boy Out by Gyles Brandreth

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Odd Boy Out

Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date
16 September 2021
Run Time
14 hours 32 minutes
Format
Audiobook
Rating
5.0 (1 review)
$13.95

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The long-awaited autobiography from beloved star of Just a Minute, QI, Have I Got News For You and Celebrity Gogglebox.

There are few people Gyles Brandreth doesn't know or hasn't met - from the Queen to the Sex Pistols, Mandela and Marlene Dietrich to TS Eliot, he's the celebrities' celebrity, as familiar and welcome to us on radio and screens as biscuits are to a cup of tea.

Now a grandparent, looking back on his remarkable life, he traces his steps back to being a three-year-old tearing around 1950s London on his tricycle, to boarding school where he had an appendix removed simply to get out of football, to Bedales, where he met Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (and became intimate with a matron), to balancing his growing love of theatre with his love for educating, the 'woolly jumper years', the stint as an MP, the years of close friendship with the Queen, to becoming a septuagenarian Twitter star and stalwart fixture in British entertainment.

Throughout it all, there are lessons to be learned as Gyles derives wisdom and wit from his extraordinary encounters. Full of stories and full of heart, this is Gyles as you don't yet know him.

© Gyles Brandreth 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • Hilarious, ribald, eye-popping, unforgettable, will make you laugh out loud

    Daily Mail

  • A whirlwind of witticisms and of funny tales, both short and tall . . . 'I feel I have lived my life in a magic garden where the sun is always shining' he writes, and in Odd Boy Out he offers us yet another glimpse of that bright, shining sun

    Mail on Sunday

  • Warm, witty, charming. A moving and very affectionate family history. An enthusiast for life

    The Times

  • A fabulous raconteur with a great many tricks up his sleeve. His infectious zest for life means he has a story for almost every well-known person you can think of

    Daily Telegraph

See more reviews
  • A magnificent raconteur. A witty account of a most unusual life

    Independent

  • Brilliant pen portraits of his father and myriad friends present a framework for Gyles's contemplation of his extraordinary life. Light-hearted and dark events alike are described with his customary deceptively jaunty style, making them funny, moving, and sometimes deeply shocking

    Sheila Hancock

  • Staggeringly brilliant, funny and touching, I loved it

    Joanna Lumley

  • A hilarious and revealing account of growing up and coming of age in an apparently well-to-do but always strapped-for-cash middle-class English family

    Eastern Daily Press

  • Brandreth has been an expert cheerer-upper for more than 60 years . . . Ebullient. Full of fun, famous names and sparkling facts

    Daily Mail

  • He's cheery, fun and has a fabulous grasp of the English language, so Gyles Brandreth's autobiography makes for a scintillating read. His hilarious - and sometimes moving - account of his life from early childhood days through to the adult world of politics and television is candid. It is also a story around his everyday family life, and about happiness, ambition and love. It offers a fascinating insight into a portrait of Britain, too

    People’s Friend Magazine

User Reviews

Book 5.0

Narration 5.0

  • No written reviews yet.

Details

Author
Gyles Brandreth
Narrator
Gyles Brandreth
Duration
14 hours 32 minutes
Release Date
16 September 2021
ISBN
9780241483749
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
Genre
Autobiography: arts and entertainment, Autobiography: historical, political and military, Memoirs, Television, Individual actors and performers
Rating
5.0(1 review)
Narration
5.0(1 review)

Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin. The long-awaited autobiography from beloved star of Just a Minute, QI, Have I Got News For You and Celebrity Gogglebox.There are few people Gyles Brandreth doesn't know or hasn't met - from the Queen to the Sex Pistols, Mandela and Marlene Dietrich to TS Eliot, he's the celebrities' celebrity, as familiar and welcome to us on radio and screens as biscuits are to a cup of tea.Now a grandparent, looking back on his remarkable life, he traces his steps back to being a three-year-old tearing around 1950s London on his tricycle, to boarding school where he had an appendix removed simply to get out of football, to Bedales, where he met Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (and became intimate with a matron), to balancing his growing love of theatre with his love for educating, the 'woolly jumper years', the stint as an MP, the years of close friendship with the Queen, to becoming a septuagenarian Twitter star and stalwart fixture in British entertainment.Throughout it all, there are lessons to be learned as Gyles derives wisdom and wit from his extraordinary encounters. Full of stories and full of heart, this is Gyles as you don't yet know him.© Gyles Brandreth 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

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