Book info

• Title One Sinha Lifetime
• Author Paul Sinha
• Year 2024
• Genre Memoir

Paul Sinha is an award-winning comedian, a quizzing mastermind and a happily-married husband. But for much of his life none of these seemed remotely imaginable. As a boy, Paul struggled to find his place in a world where he didn't quite fit. Who was he? An over-achieving schoolkid with the world's knowledge at his fingertips? A traditional Bengali son, destined for a career in medicine that he never once craved? A young gay man yearning to breathe freely? Or was he yet another flawed human being on a self-destruct mission? Amid life's mayhem, it was frequently Paul's love of facts in which he found solace, whether funding his lifestyle through quiz machines or simply trying to show off to his mates. Stumbling serendipitously into both a career in stand-up and a clandestine network of competitive quizzers introduced him to a new sense of purpose, a new identity, and, eventually, new love...

Thoughts

I’m going to be honest, I really only read this because of the absolutely genius title. I know Paul mostly from Taskmaster with a vague awareness that he’s a smart one on The Chase. But actually, for a memoir of someone I really don’t know anything about, it was very interesting and written really well. It was engaging right from the start, and brutally honest about the highs and lows of a well lived, eventful life. I really liked someone finding their passion a bit later in life too, it’s good.

Rating: 4 / 5