I am a fan of Peter Kay and I loved his first book, therefore it was no great surprise that I asked for his second book for Christmas. I am so pleased to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and it was just as good as the first one. This second book picks up right where the first one ended, when he won his comedy competition and hit the big time.
The book is spilt into chapters and they do have quite unusual titles but they do get explained in what he talks about in each of them. The book tells us a lot about the work that Peter did once he had won the competition and how he still had a lot of hard work ahead of him. He talks at length about how he found it hard with all of the travelling to the gigs and the lonely hours spent driving. I found the way he talked about doing the Edinburgh festival very funny and about how he was expected to live in a slum for the few weeks he was there. The gigs he does talk about are good ones and we get to see how they change the more famous he gets, he starts off small and then ends up doing a massive countrywide tour at the end. I learnt from this book and what he talked about just how nervous he gets before doing a gig and this was a shock to me as he is always at ease and so natural on stage and I did feel sorry for him over this as he does still suffer bad from it.
I enjoyed the way he described the way he came up with his material and how it was by accident the way his set developed as he had written and perfected a set of jokes and when he got on stage he talked about the horrendous day and journey he had had and from then on he kept this a main part of his act as he got such a good response from it. Having watched his gigs over the years I always thought there was a slight element of untruth to some of the things he would say about his family but after reading this book I now know this to be not true and all he says is exactly as it happens and his poor Grandma really did think that if she paused her TV then she would be pausing everyone else’s too!
We do get to meet some of Peters friends in this book and the main one he talks about is Paddy, I am pleased he was included in this book as they have done a lot of good work together, there are some very funny moments which involve the pair in this book and some of them did have me roaring with laughter. Peter does not talk much about his family in this book but there really is not much for him to say about them as he is mainly on the road in this book and really for me it was not an element which I really missed. He does talk about his then girlfriend, now wife and the impact his new found fame had on them both and enjoyed this, she was not a big part of the book but the little bits she was included in were good and interesting.
The book as been written in a very easy to follow way and it stays moving through his career in the one direction and does not keep switching to different years so it is very easy to follow and understand. The writing style is very good and there is a lot of humour included, some of the words may be hard for some to understand as they are written the way he says them with his think Manchester accent, I had no problem with them as hubby talks the same way! You will also find at the bottom of most pages small astrix marks which is where peter has taken the opportunity to add some funny line or explain a word or phrase he has used on that page. I did at first find this a little off putting but once I had got past the first few pages they seemed to just blend into the story and not be hard to follow and read. The humour in the book is good and very easy to understand, this book is no where near as funny as his first book but I still had a lot of laugh out loud moments, these mainly came from the sections where he had included the gags from his gig and I could actually visualise Peter of stage delivering these gags.
Peter gives a lot of good details about his gigs and I enjoyed this as it meant that I cold make a good metal picture of what he was talking about and the places he worked, it is not overly described so you will not get bored from them but there is just the right amount. There are also 2 section in the book which show photos and pictures of Peter and some of the gigs and promotional posters which were used. They are good to look at and do help with getting a mental picture of what is being talked about in the book.
I was given this book for Christmas so I have no idea of how much was paid for it, I have see this in a lot of book shops with a very varied price, ranging from £1 to £10 so do shop around for a bargain. The book is easy to spot on the shelf as it has a good cover which resembles the disco scene from the film Saturday Night Fever and the title is easy to see. The book was published by Century and the hard back edition which I have has a total of 258 pages. The text on the pages is a good size and not all cramped together so it is easy to see and read.
I am more than happy to give this book a good recommendation and the full five stars. It was very entertaining and interesting to read and you don’t need to have read the first book to be able to follow and understand this one. A definite read for all Kay fans.
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