''How Not to Be a Boy'' is a 2017 memoir by the British comedian

Robert Webb Robert Patrick Webb (born 29 September 1972) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is one half of the double act Mitchell and Webb, alongside David Mitchell. Webb and Mitchell both starred in the Channel 4 sitco ...

. He writes about his childhood, parenthood and other life events, using the experiences to discuss masculinity,

gender role A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

s and feminist topics. Major life events include his mother's death from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

, his attendance at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and the births of his two daughters. The book arose after Webb wrote a ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

'' article of the same name, and was part of a two-book deal with

Canongate Books Canongate Books (trading as Canongate) is an independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is named after the Canongate area of the city. It is most recognised for publishing the Booker Prizewinner '' Life of Pi''. Canongate wa ...

, the second book being '' Come Again'' (2020). ''How Not to Be a Boy'' was listed on ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

''s Bestseller List for eight weeks and received a

Chortle Award The Chortle Awards were set up in 2002 by the comedy website Chortle to honour the best of established stand-up comics currently working in the UK. A panel of reviewers draw up a shortlist, which is presented for public vote at the Chortle websit ...

and positive critical reception. Reviewers found the book more serious than comedic and praised its messaging.

Background

The British comedian

wrote an article entitled "How Not to Be a Boy" for the ''New Statesman'' in 2014, in which he discussed his mother's death and his relationship to his father's view of masculinity. He found that a good way to write about masculinity was through the lens of his early life. In 2015, he announced that he was working on a memoir which would expand upon parts of the column. He had made a deal with

to write two books, the latter of which became the novel '' Come Again'' (2020). A brief idea he had for a book was a comedic analysis of

lad culture Lad culture (also the new lad, laddism) was a media-driven, principally British and Irish subculture of the 1990s and early 2000s. The image of the "lad"—or "new lad"—was that of a generally middle class figure espousing attitudes typically at ...

topics such as

men's magazines This is a list of magazines primarily marketed to men. The list has been split into subcategories according to the target audience of the magazines. This list includes mostly mainstream magazines as well as adult ones. Not included here are auto ...

and the motoring programme ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

'', but he abandoned this idea. He read Caitlin Moran's '' How to Be a Woman'' (2011), a memoir about adolescence and gender roles, and was inspired by the idea of an equivalent about men. Events in Webb's life are presented out of order. He aimed to present events to make connections between events that had happened to him and ways this affected his behaviour. According to an interview in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...

'', he found that all of his poor life decisions were made "because I was trying to be a boy, or because I was trying to be a man". He said on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that one guiding thought whilst writing was how he could hypothetically explain the ideas about masculinity to

Bill Turnbull William Robert Jolyon Turnbull (25 January 1956 – 31 August 2022) was an English television and radio presenter and journalist, whose broadcasting career spanned over four decades. He began his career working for radio stations including Rad ...

, a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Background

Synopsis

Reception

References

Further reading

External links