Matt Lucas, the BAFTA-award winning comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for the many characters he created on TV's Little Britain, has written a "sort-of autobiography." Rather than writing a straightforward chronological memoir, however, Lucas arranges his beguiling and heartfelt chapters by topic alphabetically. "I have no attention span left," he confesses; "I give up halfway through reading a text message." And so, for instance, he offers "B--Baldy": at age six, he lost all his hair due to alopecia. See also, "E--Eating": "I go through phases where I get myself together, lose a couple of stone, but I always seem to return to my solace, my pleasure, my pain--food." And in "G--Gay," he concludes this angst-filled section: "Even gay people probably found this chapter a bit over-gay."
Lucas's wit and warmth shine throughout Little Me. Readers will root for him during his career trajectory from stand-up to his comedic partnership with David Walliams, and solo success on TV's Doctor Who and in supporting roles in films like Bridesmaids and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. He does keep some parts of his life private, like the suicide of his domestic partner, Kevin McGee ("the man I loved and lost, a kind, warm, beautiful being who didn't have the armour for this world"). But he deftly discusses his deep grief--"When Kevin died, half of me died with him"--and its aftereffects: "I downloaded Grindr and went on an empty sexual rampage that would have put Casanova to shame."
Matt Lucas's disarming, honest and charming memoir is sure to delight fans and create new ones. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant