Join us for an evening in conversation with David Baddiel on his new book My Family: The Memoir, followed by a book signing.
My Family is 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: that of a lower-middle-class Jewish family living in an ordinary house in Dollis Hill, north-west London. But he came to realise 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 his mum turning 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 Nicklaus and Erica Jong.
Meanwhile, as David investigates his family’s past, his father’s memories are fading; dementia is making his dad 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.
David Baddiel is an author, comedian, screenwriter and television presenter. He has written four novels and two non-fiction books including the bestselling Jews Don't Count which was the Sunday Times 'Politics and Current Affairs Book of the Year' 2021. David is also the author of ten middle-grade books for children that have sold over 2 million copies.