Not That I'm Bitter by Helen Lederer Hardback Memoir

Helen Lederer is a writer, actress, comedian, and presenter. She began as a stand-up comedian in the 80s and rose to fame with her Sloaney girl at the bar in the BBC Comedy 'Naked video', then came Saturday Night Live, The Young Ones, French and Saunders and Bottom with Rik Mayall. She's best known as Catriona the dippy journalist in the TV series Absolutely Fabulous.

Not That I'm Bitter, her powerful, frank, moving and characteristically funny memoir, reveals exactly how choppy the waters could be. Even in those ground-breaking, anti-Thatcher days, there was only room at top for so many women. For the rest, it was as much a struggle to be seen and heard in the world of comedy as in any boardroom or workplace, and just as difficult to avoid the predators.

This is more than the story of one decade, however. The child of a Jewish-Czech wartime refugee, Helen Lederer was never part of the mainstream. How do you make humour from a lifelong battle against problems with weight and low-self-esteem? Where are the jokes in addictions to diet-pills and steroid injections? How can laughter defeat the darker moments, like a child's anorexia or PTSD? How do you cope with constant self-sabotage and when, despite enormous success, you still feel like a failure? Helen raises an important and open discussion around mental health alongside the evolved attitudes to women today. There's something in Helen Lederer's life-story that everyone, can relate to.

A genuinely funny memoir with lots of heart (and just the right amount of bitterness!), she pulls no punches, but every blow is wrapped in a laugh of recognition. Brilliantly written, revealing, and moving, Not That I'm Bitter is sweet, sour, laugh-out-loud, and addictive.