Book info

• Title Small Man in a Book
• Author Rob Brydon
• Year 2011
• Genre Memoir

A multi-award-winning actor, writer, comedian and presenter known for his warmth, humour and inspired impressions, Rob Brydon has quickly become one of our very favourite entertainers. But there was a time when it looked like all we'd hear of Rob was his gifted voice. Growing up in South Wales, Rob had a passion for radio and soon the Welsh airwaves resounded to his hearty burr. However, these were followed by years of misadventure and struggle, before, in the TV series Marion and Geoff and Gavin and Stacey, Rob at last tickled the nation's funny bone. The rest, as they say, is history. Or in his case autobiography. Small Man in a Book is Rob Brydon's funny, heartfelt, honest, sometimes sad, but mainly funny, memoir of how a young man from Wales very, very slowly became an overnight success.

Thoughts

Rob Brydon’s autobiography is deliberately set in the period from birth to just as he broke through and become a household name. I admire that, considering the world of autobiographies can be about just spilling the beans on your rich and famous friends.

However, it does linger a little too long on childhood, for my tastes, particularly as Brydon himself admits he’s remembering them through rose-tinted spectacles. Thankfully it’s all done with humour, but I found the middle section about trying to break through into acting far more interesting.

It was also interesting to see how the same people come dipping in and out of his life - Ruth Jones, Julia Davis and James Corden, helping each other and working together to make comedy a better place! I found it interesting to read about the voiceover process, and how hard it was to find an agent to get out of that world into acting instead, although I must admit it was disappointing when the story ends on a tantalising glimpse of Gavin and Stacey.

I don’t want gory details, but love reading how things are made, what efforts go into creating the wonderful things we, as fans, get to consume. Thankfully the latter portion of the book has that in spades, making up for the slightly slow start to proceedings.

Rating: 3 / 5