Sandi Toksvig

I don't normally read memoirs or autobiographies. I'm glad I made an exception for Sandi Toksvig's remarkable memoir, 'Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus'. I knew almost nothing about Sandi Toksvig's life but I've always enjoyed her wit and erudition when I've seen her on television, either as a comedian or as a host of game shows like QI or The News Quiz. We're from the same generation, we have similar views and she usually succeeds in making laugh even show more if the laughter is often of the kind I use to deal with how seriously messed up the world often is.

One of the things that puts me off reading memoirs is that the process of turning a life into a linear narrative often seems to convert memories into fictions that are too tidy to be real. I was attracted to Sandi Toksvig's memoir partly because she's avoided the traditional "I was born on a dark and stormy night...* narrative by structuring her story as a series of memories and reflections triggered by what she sees around her as she looks out from the topdeck of the Number 12 bus that takes her from her London home to the BBC headquarters.

Sandi Toksvig is a history nerd with a passion for collecting obscure historical facts about how the people of London lived their lives. When she looks out of the bus window, the London she sees is coloured by her knowledge of who and what used to be in that spot She's also passionate about feminism and is and always has been enraged by the inequalities that continue to make the lives of women harder. When Sandi Toksvig looks out of the bus window, she is constantly aware of how almost all of the Blue Plaques and statues and street names celebrating London's great and good belong to white men while the contributions of women to shaping the lives of Londoners are allowed to fade away of are actively erased.

The details of Sandi Toksvig's life are folded, like fruit in a Christmas cake, into her discourse on the London streets she's travelling through, That many of her stories are funny and are told with wit and skill was no surprise. What did surprise me was the quiet intimacy that she created as she talked about the painful times in her life, periods of loneliness, depression and despair, her travels into unpleasant and distressing places, her encounters with institutionalised prejudice as well as the many things that have brought her joy, to which she often appends the word 'glorious'.

For me, listening to Sandi Toksvig share her stories was a glorious experience. I felt moved by the bad things that she's lived through and cheered by her resilience, intelligence, humour and compassion. There were many occaisions when an observation or reaction she shared made me think "So it's not just me. She thinks/feels that way too!" , a reaction which I found oddly comforting.

I strongly recommend the audiobook version as it make the book fee even more like a conversation with a friend. show less

It’s probably a sign that a book is five stars when you go buy the audio version three chapters in because you know you’re going to want to read this again. This is the perfect format for Sandi to tell her life story: an unusual framework (the route taken by the Number 12 bus in London, with each chapter being one of the stops) that allows her the opportunity to tell selected bits of her life and a lot of history alongside. This book was published in 2019, so I have heard a few of show more Sandi’s stories before (e.g., how she was standing with Neil Armstrong’s secretary while the Apollo 11 crew were walking on the moon) because she’s since told them on QI. But I always enjoy hearing Sandi’s stories, no matter how many times she tells them. show less

Every now and again a break from crime fiction is sought, and everything I've ever seen written or heard spoken about Sandi Toksvig, and every time I've heard her on TV or the radio, makes me convinced that time spent in her company on those mediums is just better. So this was an immediate purchase when I heard people talking about it recently. BETWEEN THE STOPS reads EXACTLY as you'd expect something from Sandi Toksvig to read. You start out on the Number 12 bus, looking out at a show more streetscape, which leads you to a bit of a chat about somebody from history who did something or had something to do with that place, which leads to an anecdote from her life, which nearly always included something that made me laugh, that made me seriously annoyed with the world, and that really made me think.

For those in Australia who aren't as welded onto the ABC, BBC or UK-TV as those in this household, Sandi may or may not be as well known, but she is the guest who became presenter when Stephen Fry left QI; she, and Noel Fielding, took on The Great British Bake Off when they abandoned ship and moved to another UK tv station; and she often appears on English comedic panel shows and The Last Leg. She's funny, extremely erudite, an outspoken and articulate feminist, an activist, and, it comes as no surprise, incredibly well read, and knowledgeable about history, with women's history a specific interest. The way that she has woven observations of human nature (particularly pertaining to bus travel), the history of the places that the Number 12 passes, and the major events in her own life is not just entertaining it's profoundly enlightening.

Loved this book. Loved every single thing about it. Can not recommend it highly enough. (Those who are used to receiving books from me at Christmas may find their parcels contain one that comes as no surprise now....)

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/between-stops-view-my-life-top-number-12... show less

It was always the cover that attracted me to this book. Although I bought it as part of a collection the cover stood out a mile, after all it is bright orange. The vividness and uniqueness of the cover completely matches the characters though - not the narrator Dorothy but rather the group of women living in the zoo she comes across. The opening section of this novel left me initially wondering if I was going to enjoy it. However it did set the scene for the relationships within Dorothy’s show more family and left me knowing why (and how) she became the child she was. At only 10, she was an amazingly resilient child.

My only experience (as I have seen many reviewers on the internet say) of Sandi Toksvig is from seeing her on comedy shows or as a child watching her in a programme from the 1980s called ‘Number 73’. I had doubts whether her entertaining wit would come through in the writing and I felt it would be a disappointment if it didn’t. I was hoping she wouldn’t digress too much from what I already enjoyed her for. She didn’t. I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I was blown away.

The prose is outstanding and her writing aroused such an emotion in me by the end I almost wanted to cheer and I certainly had a lump in my throat followed by a tear in my eye. The story is about Dorothy essentially but the addition of the elephants towards the end transfixed me. I was mesmerised by every word Toksvig used and the elephants came alive on the page in front of me. Feminist principles are at the heart of this novel and I felt myself become enthused by what I was reading, I particularly loved the corset scenes!

Whilst reading, I was reminded of Angela Carter’s ‘Nights at the Circus’ particularly the similarities in some aspects between Dorothy from Toksvig’s book and Fevvers from Carter’s book. That one is also worth a read and has stuck in my mind over the years. I can’t recommend ‘Whistling for the Elephants’ enough and I will be telling everyone how wonderful it is. It is sure to be on my top ten reads of 2011. show less