Being a comedian often seems like a way of refusing to grow up, settle down and become an adult. No boring mortgages for these dudes eh? Add to that a general feeling these days that nobody wants to grow old – hey, 50 is the new 20 – and Isy Suttie’s first book definitely feels like it is catching a wave.
Which is an appropriate image, because her mostly-autobiographical book, subtitled How I Tried, And Failed, To Remain Twenty-Something For Ever, kicks off with Suttie running naked into the sea during a New Year break and expecting her friends to follow her. Only to discover that they are more worried about the traffic on the way home. Suddenly Suttie sees that the big 3-0 is approaching and everyone is pairing off, having children and secretly googling property prices in the Cotswolds. So is she going to find ‘the actual one’ too? The pressure is on.
The romantic quest certainly makes for a very readable, laugh-out-loud, big-smile story as Suttie (alright, let’s get this out the way, she is best known as Dobby from Peep Show) goes on dates in the dark, meets hipsters and men who can’t stop talking in rhyme all the time. There is no shortage of suitors – or sex, there’s a very funny lost condom scene – but are any of them the one she wants to spend the rest of her life with?
Along the way Suttie writes eloquently about her childhood in Matlock. She clearly always had a vivid imagination. In one school essay she wrote that her dad was a burglar and she used to accompany him on burgling expeditions. In fact he was Dr Suttie. Her mother meanwhile, seems to deserve a spin-off book of her own. She is not just an eccentric mum from central casting who can’t get a grip on social media, she seems hellbent on fixing her daughter up with Mr Right – a campaign that motivates her daughter to find her own man.
Suttie is also very funny about bad gigs, in one instance recalling being paid £20 to leave the stage. Anyone who has enjoyed her performances will recognise the whimsical style but, if anything, it works better on the page where her ear for dialogue and a quirky turn of phrase does not feel as hemmed in. She also punctuates the text with little cartoons, most notably of her meeting one potential beau naked under a tatty fur coat – though not on a skateboard as the cover image suggests.
The only word that truly sums up this book is “lovely”. "Cute" comes close, but sounds a little patronising. There is an underlying grown-up toughness to her too. Curiously while I was reading it I did think at times that the prose – and the lo-fi drawings – reminded me of Josie Long and funnily enough Long gets a thank you for reading the first draft in the credits. If you love Suttie – or Josie Long – you will love this book. And if you don’t love Suttie read this book and you certainly will by the end of it.
Buy The Actual One here.
