Odd Boy Out

Odd Boy Out

The ‘hilarious, eye-popping, unforgettable’ Sunday Times bestseller 2021

Summary

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

Reviews

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

About the author

Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth is a writer, broadcaster and former MP and Government Whip. His many books include the bestselling poetry anthology, Dancing by the Light of the Moon, and the international bestseller about spelling and punctuation, Have You Eaten Grandma? With Susie Dent, the lexicographer from Countdown, he co-hosts the award-winning podcast, Something Rhymes with Purple. Gyles presents Great Canal Journeys on Channel 4 with Dame Sheila Hancock and regularly appears on Celebrity Gogglebox with Dame Maureen Lipman.
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