Rating: 5 out of 5

This made me laugh. It made me cry. Tom Courtenay was born 6 years after my Dad, and 3 years after my Mum, and the Hull and ‘Essle Road he describes are familiar from their stories. And his sister, Ann, with her husband and two sons lived in the house next door to my family home during my early childhood - I have a teddy bear in the loft that the eldest of the boys gave me when I was born. I didn’t read this for the actor autobiography aspect. I read it for the Hull, Hessle Road aspect. And it went a little way to fill the Hull-shaped gap I’ve been feeling recently. Including reminding me of some phrases that I haven’t heard in a fair few years. Chuntering being one such example.

Highlighted passage:

Later on in the profession, auditions never scared me. I always thought they were looking for what I had, not for what I didn’t have, unlike critics

Originally posted to my Goodreads account