Losing It by Helen Lederer

Review Date: 9 August 2015

Author: Helen Lederer

Release Date:  12 February 2015

Publishers: Pan Macmillan

ISBN –10: 1447267648

ISBN – 13: 978-1447267645

480pp

Available in Paperback, Kindle and Audio.

Authors Website: http://www.helenlederer.co.uk/

 

The Last Word Review

A wickedly funny, witty debut novel from one of the funniest women in show business

 

Well this has been a long time coming. One of the Countries best loved Comedienne’s has finally written a debut novel, and this has been worth the wait.

Losing It is a very easy to ready novel that you will find hard to leave alone, it moves along at an easy pace and is packed with laugh out loud moments.

Set in London and the central character Millie who has reached a mid-life crisis a divorcee now facing losing her home, short of money and rapidly short of patience and add to this depressed. Millie was a successful writer as an agony aunt for a Women’s magazine but her star has waned in recent times and now Millie is struggling to cope with her world that seems to crashing all around her, the only thing on the ‘up’ is her weight and here the story really starts.

Out of the blue, Millie has been approached to become the face of a new diet pill and all the fame and more importantly fortune that goes along with this. There is of course one drawback (as there always is) Millie has to lose three stone in three months.

It is impossible not to like Millie and even some of her ‘friends’ as you will discover when you read Losing It. Millie decides to ask for an advance ahead of the weight loss and heads off to foreign shores to visit Mary, her daughter. While there she hopes to pick up a rather nasty illness that will make her weight loss easier if that is at possible. Add to the plot loan sharks who are after their money and various hideous weight loss programmes such as colonic irrigation, laxatives and various other dubious ideas.

When you read Losing It there is a chance that you will lose it, this reviewer read this while in hospital having a major colon procedure so it is at times really very funny and has so many great moments that many will relate to. Though how many will admit to colonic irrigation as an aid to weight loss that point I think we will gloss over quickly.

For a debut novel Lederer has written a charming, at times moving but most memorable a very funny book that is worth visiting.

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Meet the Author

Helen Lederer

Helen is probably best known for her role as the dippy Catriona in Absolutely Fabulous, in which she appeared alongside Jennifer Saunders in all six series of the show as well as creating the ‘girl at the bar’ in Naked Video. However, to many she is known for her unique brand of wit and observational humour. A comedy writer with an extensive portfolio that includes writing and performing her own material, Helen has starred in a great number of top TV comedy and radio shows.

Helen was part of a group of early 1980s comedians, including French and Saunders, the late Rik Mayall, and Ben Elton, who made their names at London’s famous Comedy Store. She was a guest on ITV’s Saturday Night Live with her solo comedy act, as well as performing at the first Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal along with Lenny Henry. TV appearances span such shows as The Young Ones, French and Saunders, Happy Families, One Foot in the Grave, Bottom, Love Soup, Miss Marple, Casualty and Hollyoaks. She plays Miss Bowline-Hitch alongside Bernard Cribbins in the much-loved children’s TV series Old Jack’s Boat. Helen also played Rich Aunt Ruby in Horrid Henry: The Movie.

On BBC radio, she has been a regular panellist on shows including Just a Minute, Quote . . . Unquote, Open Book, A Good Read and Woman’s Hour, as well as writing and performing in two of her own comedy series, All Change and Life with Lederer. Her columns include Woman & Home, the Independent, the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Telegraph, and she is currently the ‘agony aunt’ for Woman’s Weekly. Helen’s comedy books include Coping with Helen Lederer and Single Minding. She’s done a variety of theatre work, following hot on the heels of Julie Walters in Educating Rita, playing Doreen in Alan Bleasdale’s Having a Ball, as well as appearing in The Vagina Monologues, Calendar Girls and The Killing of Sister George in London’s West End, interspersed with many fringe theatre plays.

Losing It is Helen’s first novel released by Pan Macmillan in February 2015.