Autobiograpy - Pre-publication Reaction
Janey Godley's troubled childhood is set to be a best-seller. The stand-up comedienne who uses her own life for her outrageously candid act, has been offered a book deal to tell all. And there's plenty to tell... click to see full article: A tale of sexual abuse, drugs, gangsters, murder, suicide and love. Writers' Guild of Great Britain Bulletin, November 2003 If it is anything like her act, it will make Angela's Ashes seem like The Famous Five. London Evening Standard, 11th December 2003 Godley's early life was tough...It looks like being a harrowing read. Daily Record, 13th February 2004 Somehow, the 42 year-old's natural resilience has seen her not only survive, but take positives from her harrowing experiences. Glasgow Evening Times, 1st March 2004 Handstands isn’t funny; it’s a serious memoir, covering the period of her dirt-poor childhood in Glasgow’s East End up until 1994. It does seem that Handstands will be a tear-jerker. |
The Glaswegian
stand-up is now writing the story of her life before she came into comedy.
It will cover the murder of her mother, her abuse at the hands of her
uncle and the consequences of heroin abuse on those close to her. Godley turned
the experiences into a one-woman play, Point Of Yes, which she
performed at this year's Fringe. There it was seen by writer John Fleming,
who suggested it would make a good book. Godley told
Chortle: "I promptly sent stuff to Random House that I had written
about my past; they were very impressed at the content and story so
they offered me this book deal. I was amazed and stunned. Being a stand
up is everything to me but I tried new stuff this year and I became
a playwright and actor for the Fringe and ended up an author. It has
been a great learning curve for me and I am really looking forward to
getting on with the book. I do seem to have an abundance of weird life
anecdotes." Fleming, who
recently edited the collection Sit-Down Comedy, will be helping
Godley with the book. He said: "It is a fairly relentlessly horrific
life story, but told by a funny woman." The book is scheduled to be published by Random House's imprint Ebury Press in June 2005. www.chortle.co.uk, 4th November 2003 YOU CAN BUY THE BOOK DIRECT FROM JANEY HANDSTANDS IN THE DARK is published by |