David Baddiel

Simon Mayo's Books Of The Year

David Baddiel joins Simon and Matt for a chat about his new non-fiction book, 'My Family: The Memoir'

He discusses his relationship with his mum and dad, some of the hilarious anecdotes from his childhood that appear in the book and the love that he has for both his parents, despite their quirks and faults.

His family life growing up was complicated, and David doesn't shy away from telling the home truths of his upbringing.

Simon and Matt also discuss David's brilliant new podcast, "A Muslim And A Jew Go There" which he co presents with Sayeeda Warsi.

Here's some more gumf on the book:

A searingly honest, funny and moving family memoir in which David Baddiel exposes his mother’s idiosyncratic sex life, and his father’s dementia, to the same affectionate scrutiny.

On the surface, David Baddiel’s childhood was fairly standard: a lower-middle-class Jewish family living in an ordinary house in Dollis Hill, north-west London. But David came to realise that his mother was in fact not ordinary at all. Having escaped extermination by fleeing Nazi Germany as a child, she was desperate to make her life count, which took the form of a passionate, decades-long affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman. David’s detailing of the affair – including a hilarious focus on how his mother turned their household over to golf memorabilia, and an eye-popping cache of her erotic writings – leads to the inescapable conclusion that Sarah Baddiel was a cross between Jack Niklaus and Erica Jong.

Meanwhile, as Baddiel investigates his family’s past, his father’s memories are fading; dementia is making him moodier and more disinhibited, with an even greater penchant for obscenity. As with his mother’s affair, there is both comedy and poignancy to be found: laughter is a constant presence, capable of transforming the darkest of experiences into something redemptive.

My Family: The Memoir is David Baddiel’s candid examination of his childhood, family and memory offering a twisted love letter to his parents.

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