Book info

• Title The Sound of Laughter
• Author Peter Kay
• Year 2006
• Genre Memoir

Peter Kay's unerring gift for observing the absurdities and eccentricities of family life has earned himself a widespread, everyman appeal. These vivid observations coupled with a kind of nostalgia that never fails to grab his audience's shared understanding, have earned him comparisons with Alan Bennett and Ronnie Barker. In his award winning TV series' he creates worlds populated by degenerate, bitter, useless, endearing and always recognisable characters which have attracted a huge and loyal following. In many ways he's an old fashioned kind of comedian and the scope and enormity of his fanbase reflects this. He doesn't tell jokes about politics or sex, but rather rejoices in the far funnier areas of life: elderly relatives and answering machines, dads dancing badly at weddings, garlic bread and cheesecake, your mum's HRT... His autobiography is full of this kind of humour and nostalgia, beginning with Kay's first ever driving lesson, taking him back through his Bolton childhood, the numerous jobs he held after school and leading up until the time he passed his driving test and found fame.

Thoughts

I listened to Peter Kay’s newly released audiobook of this, his autobiography from about ten years ago. It’s a great story, well told, and with all the extra bits thrown in, it really was just like sitting down and having a chat with him. I liked the moments where he ended up reviewing his own work, or adding some notes on what has happened since the book was first published.

It always makes me laugh how much real life stuff ends up in the TV shows - all that supermarket stuff, some of the conversations like for like those that he had with Kayleigh in Car Share. Loved it.

Rating: 5 / 5