Dawn French

Dawn French (one half of the British comedy duo, French and Saunders) may be one of the funniest women alive today. The other funniest woman alive today is Jennifer Saunders, the other half of French and Saunders. For those not familiar with either, they have had a successful run at BBC with their variety show, French and Saunders; Dawn French may be best known for her role in The Vicar of Dibley; Jennifer Saunders is probably best know for her role as Edina in Absolutely Fabulous; both have show more also starred in shows too numerous to list here. And every single show that I have seen them in has been top notch.

Dear Fatty is Dawn French's memoir. Like anything that French does, her memoir is frequently laugh-out-loud funny. What surprised me most about her memoir is how unflinchingly honest she is throughout. She relates her life, both its ups and downs, as best she remembers it. Written in the form of letters to her friends and loved ones, Dear Fatty touches on the funny and the sad in French's life. For instance, one letter is to her father, who committed suicide when she was 19, and in one paragraph that goes on for almost two pages, she asks him questions. Why he did what he did; why didn't he ask for help; etc. By the end of this particular letter, I'm not ashamed to say that I had tears in my eyes. Her frustration of 30 years of unanswered questions is so evident, and she does nothing to hide that. Of course, not wanting to keep her readers in too serious a mood, she immediately segues into far more lighthearted material, but that honesty is there and it can be raw and emotional, and I respect her all the more for it.

I never doubted her ability to write; watch any of her sketches or shows, and it's obvious she has a talent, and she excels at proving that over and over again in her book. One of my favorite lines from the book is:
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"It's a process of having faith in the self you don't quite know you are yet... Believing that you will find the strength, the means somehow, and trusting in that..."

Words that speak volumes to me in my life right now.

I don't that many people would rush out to buy this book. First off, I'm not even sure it's available in the US yet, and secondly, I don't know that anyone who isn't a fan of Dawn French would really care all that much. But for those of us who are fans, this is a gem of a book, and even if you aren't a fan of Dawn French, I still think you'd find this a funny and revealing look into the life of one of the funniest ladies out there right now.

Highly recommended. show less

Dawn French is of course well known as one half of the comedy duo French and Saunders (Jennifer Saunders is in fact the "Fatty" referred to in the book's title). This is Dawn's biography of sorts - it is told in the form of various letters to people who have played some role in her life.

Many of the letters are written to her father who committed suicide when Dawn was just 19 years old. The memories of him and his love have clearly been a huge force in her life and she writes honestly and show more openly about the good and the bad times she spent with him. Other letter recipients include her mother, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn's husband Lenny (Henry), her Best Friend (BF, whose name is never revealed in the book), old schoolfriends, Val Doonican, Madonna and The Monkees.

Some parts of the book read better than others. The earlier letters, which more or less chart Dawn's childhood and early family life were not as interesting as the later ones, which tell her life from the age of about 20.

Family is clearly of huge importance to her - when she writes about her parents, husband and daughter and her brother, the love comes shining through and is genuinely touching. I admired her honesty in talking about a rough patch her marriage went through - she described her whole gamut of emotions, from anger to fear to forgiveness in a way that was easy to empathise with. Another letter which actually moved me to tears (and highlighted the perils of reading while waiting in a supermarket queue) was the one to her friend Scottie, who died of AIDS - yet she juxtaposes the sadness with a hilarious tale about her mission to scatter Scottie's ashes in the location he had intended.

Comic relief (no pun intended) is provided through a number of her letters to Madonna (who repeatedly refused to appear on the French and Saunders show) and doting-schoolgirl missives to The Monkees and David Cassidy. I also enjoyed reading about the early days of the Comic Strip, and her work on The Vicar of Dibley.

Overall, after a slow start, this was an enjoyable read, which perfectly illustrated the warmth and humour for which Dawn French is so much admired and loved. show less

This was hilarious - the voice of the teenage daughter utterly convincing. The inner voice of the mother was believable - a person attempting to be mature, in control, yet so clearly neither.

There were a couple of moments where I was reminded of the voice of Miss French herself - which was an intrusion on the suspension of disbelief (I don't mean an authorial voice or a narrative voice either).

It's a book that I'm very happy to recommend to my friends - because I think they will recognise show more the mother-daughter relationship - which is the strongest part of the book for me. show less

Told in journal form by three characters – a mother and her two adolescent children, this book is quite funny. Take one child psychologist going through a mid-life crisis and who can’t see the forest for the trees, a seventeen year old daughter who is as confused and suffering as much teenage angst as would fill a girls-only prep school and a sixteen year old, self-assured, articulate son and you get one funny book.

Despite the humour however, some of the topics touched on are quite show more serious: low self esteem in women, food issues and cyber-stalking. I found the girl’s character, Dora, to be pathetic but endearing at the same time. I think the author may have drawn personalities into her characters that stretched normal human boundaries. Dora didn’t just get frustrated at her mother, but yelled at her using the worst language possible. The mother’s response was to escape to work or her den to work on her book (Teenagers’s: The Manual), frustrated herself about why her daughter won’t listen to her advice. I know if my daughter furiously called me those names I would be blind-sided and very hurt. Dora’s mother saw hurling insults as a normal (albeit difficult) stage of adolescence to go through.

My favourite character was the son. He’s smart and wickedly funny. I pictured the character from Glee (Kurt) whenever I read his sections of the book. It was as if those parts were written with that television character in mind and I think the author did a great job with it.

The father, referred to as Husband or Dad, is mostly in the background but shines through occasionally. Even at that, he’s much more likeable than the mother who seems to be going through her own adolescence all over again. The husband/father is the most ‘normal’ character in the whole bunch, but overall (minus some of the more extreme characterizations) this is a dysfunctional family story but delivered with a lot of sly wit thrown in. show less