According to her memoir Spectacles, Sue Perkins has always wanted to write a book. Only the book she imagined was more of an epic than a memoir. Still, I for one am pleased the publishers went with the memoir rather than the adventures of Ra’anui and the Enchanted Otter.
Sue describes her mother’s early (and unintentional) sabotage of the memoir by accidentally throwing out much of Sue’s childhood memories and keeping instead the bin liners of childhood junk set aside to be chucked. As Sue points out in the book, it helped her use her own memories rather than researching her childhood as though writing a biography of someone she’d long since outgrown. Instead Spectacles is a loosely chronological memoir with various anecdotes and recollections thrown in when relevant. Which makes for a far more interesting – if less accurate – read.
You may have caught snippets of Spectacles in the Sunday Times. In which case you probably read about Sue’s brain tumour, discovered whilst filming historical food programme Supersizers, and the infertility issues it has caused. You might also have picked up on her six year relationship with a man that began in her late teens which only ended he confessed to sleeping with men and resulted in them both undergoing an HIV test.
Both stories highlight homophobia Sue has countered – her consultant thought her sexuality meant her infertility wouldn’t be an issue and the reaction to her previous heterosexual relationship, you’ll note one paper’s report on the story refers to Sue’s longterm girlfriend as her ‘current’ partner – as though it is patiently waiting until Sue changes her mind and finds a ‘permanent husband’.
However, being a comedian, Sue writes about these issues as well as her father’s cancer and subsequent depression, her childhood eating disorder, a messy break up with her girlfriend Kate and her dog Pickle’s death with a lightness that stops this being a misery memoir – or ‘mis mem’ as Jennifer Saunders would say. Although the bit about Pickle did have me heaving with sobs on the train.
This lightness of touch does leave Sue occasionally skimming over parts of her life that I would like to learn more about. For instance her presidency of the Cambridge Footlights and the lager sponsorship for the society that began during her reign and ended as David Mitchell joined (as sadly recorded in his memoir Back Story) are covered in a couple of sentences. Although the dearth in detail there could be explained by the access to free lager.
There are some funny stories from Sue and comedy partner Mel Giedroyc’s 1990s day time show Light Lunch, where they repeatedly over-estimated guests sense of humour and got called “silly, silly girls” by Dynasty’s Stephanie Beacham as they interviewed her and co-star Kate O’ Mara dressed up as Krystle Carrington (Sue) and Alexis Carrington Colby (Mel). And if it’s celebrity anecdotes you’re after then this memoir has that too, there’s a particularly hilarious one involving Esther Rantzen.
This is a memoir that has all the right ingredients.
Sue Perkins, Spectacles is published by Penguin and out on Thursday 8th October.
