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  • Published: 1 June 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099519478
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $22.99

Dear Fatty




The number one bestselling autobiography from Britain's best-loved comedienne

A SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER
___________________________
The hilarious and heartwarming memoir from one of Britain's best-loved comedians and Women's Prize longlisted author, Dawn French.

Dawn French is one of the greatest comedians of our time with a career that has spanned nearly four decades. Loved for her irreverent humour, Dawn has achieved massive mainstream success while continuing to push boundaries and challenge stereotypes. Here, she describes the journey that would eventually establish her as a perhaps unlikely, but nevertheless genuine, national treasure.

As part of the much loved duo French and Saunders, Dawn helped create a repertoire of brilliantly observed characters, impersonating everything from Madonna and Harry Potter to The Exorcist. Dawn's iconic role in the Vicar of Dibley showcased not only her talent but also her ability to take a controversial and topical issue and make it mainstream - and very funny.

From her early years as an RAF child and her flat-sharing antics with Jennifer Saunders, to her outspoken views on sizism and her marriage to Lenny Henry, Dear Fatty chronicles the extraordinary and hilarious rise of a complex, dynamic and unstoppable woman.

  • Published: 1 June 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099519478
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Dawn French

Dawn French has been making people laugh for thirty years. On purpose. As a writer, comedian and actor, she has appeared in some of Britain's most long-running, cherished and celebrated shows, including French and Saunders, The Comic Strip Presents . . . , Murder Most Horrid, The Vicar of Dibley, Jam and Jerusalem, Lark Rise to Candleford and, more recently, Roger and Val Have Just Got In.

Her number-one bestselling memoir, Dear Fatty, was published to critical acclaim in 2008. A Tiny Bit Marvellous, her first novel, was a great success, going straight to number one and selling over half a million copies. Oh Dear Silvia is her second novel.

UK comedy star Dawn French is a judge for the 2013 series of Australia's Got Talent on the Nine Network.

Also by Dawn French

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Praise for Dear Fatty

well written, warm and funny

Sunday Times

she writes so well

Daily Mail

no-holds-barred

List

very funny but also very moving

The London Paper

something of a revelation. Beacuse in among the the gags and photos of her bare bosom, there is intellectual rigour and real emotional intelligence ... heavens, she's a funny lady. I can't remember the last time a book made me laugh so much.

Sunday Telegraph

very funny

Hampshire View

there are moments here that shine with the genius for observational comedy for which Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders (the Fatty of the title) are famous

Guardian

a national treasure ... Loyal, self-deprecating and garrulous, French's story makes for entertaining reading ... this is an original book, and will delight her fans and, indeed anyone with a sense of humour

Mail on Sunday

Dawn writes (with) tenderness, caring and oodles of charm. Well-paced, it's a reminder of why she has been a staple of the British comedy scene since the early 1980s

Guernsey Press

Anyone perparing for another dry, identikit celebrity autobiography is going to be delighted by these hilarious memoirs

She

French can still cut the comic mustard

Time Out

while much of the book's tone is that of the unassailably jolly Dawn we all expect ... other letters are tear-jerkingly poignant and none more so than those she writes to her late father Denys French

Daily Express

For all her honesty anyone hoping for a light-hearted romp will be delighted ... While her charm shines throughout, the more intense moments stay with you in a way that most celeb autobiographies can only strive for

Sunday Express

you'll be captivated by her witty and warm style

Prima

Self-depracating yet never self-pitying, irreverent yet never truly cynical, she comes across as a woman genuinely at ease with herself ... French is engaging company, and at her best she writes about heartbreak and elation with such grace that her book is impossible to dislike

Boston Standard