''Just Ignore Him'' is a 2020 memoir by the British comedian

Alan Davies Alan Roger Davies (; born 6 March 1966) is an English stand-up comedian, writer, actor and TV presenter. He is best known for his portrayal of the title role in the BBC mystery drama series ''Jonathan Creek'' (1997–2016) and as the only perm ...

, detailing his early childhood.

Background

is a British comedian, known for his acting in ''

Jonathan Creek ''Jonathan Creek'' is a long-running British mystery crime drama series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. It stars Alan Davies as the titular character, who works as a creative consultant to a stage magician while also solvi ...

'' and permanent role on the panel show '' QI''. ''Just Ignore Him'' was his second book, following ''My Favourite People And Me, 1978–88'' (2009), which was republished as ''Teenage Revolution''. Davies later said of his first book that "all the things that mattered were missing". Davies worked on ''Just Ignore Him'' while pursuing a part-time MA in creative writing at

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

. He began the MA course in 2016, initially writing short stories about his life in the third person. At the end of his first year, he submitted for assessment a passage of writing which later became the chapter "Hands", with few changes needed. Davies expressed an interest in writing a stand-up show about the material covered in the book. Davies consulted with friends about his plan for the book, some of whom asked if he was sure that he wanted the personal information within it to be public. He viewed the story as his and his mother's and wished for it to be told. In an interview with ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'', Davies said that: "I also wanted to tell people they could talk about their own stories, even if they had never talked about them before". Davies aimed for the book to be "a record to last a long time" and wanted his children to read it when they were older. Davies found it "very, very difficult" and not cathartic to write it. The book was announced in November 2019 and published in the United Kingdom by

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

on 1 September 2020. Autumn is the most frequent book release period in the U.K. and the day and week in which ''Just Ignore Him'' was published were particularly busy due to delays caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. According to the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'', Davies was reluctant to engage in press work for the book, wishing his audience to discover the nature of its subject matter through reading it. He wanted the mention of abuse to be omitted from publications prior to the book's release. His publishers did not communicate this to newspapers, at least in the case of his interview with the ''Sydney Morning Herald'', who chose to publish details about the book's subject matter along with extracts from the interview where Davies explains why he did not want the details to be published.

Synopsis

The book is about Davies' early childhood, including the death of his mother and sexual abuse by his father. It covers how these events affected him throughout his life.

Reception

Fiona Sturges of ''

'' praised the book as "fiercely honest". Sturges described the book as mostly serious, though containing bleak humour, and found it "sometimes upsetting" and "more sad than angry". Sturges later chose it as one of the best five celebrity memoirs of 2020, calling it "intimate" and "open-hearted". ''

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, whi ...

'' chose it as the best film and theatre book of 2020, in their list of "The 37 best books of 2020". In his review for the publication, Jonathan Dean called it "Surely the bravest memoir of the year".

References

External links

Official website
2020 non-fiction books British autobiographies Little, Brown and Company books

Background

Synopsis

Reception

References

Further reading

External links