Believe Me cover art

Believe Me

A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens

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Believe Me

By: Eddie Izzard
Narrated by: Eddie Izzard
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About this listen

Get to know a national icon in Eddie Izzard's hilarious and dazzling autobiography.

Star of stage and screen. Tireless supporter of charity. Marathon runner. Political campaigner.

Fashion icon. Human.

There is no one quite like Eddie Izzard. This is the story of how she broke through.

Her relentless optimism has led her to always do things her own way, even if it didn't work the first time, and her incredible self-belief has pushed her to keep on trying, even if it didn't work the second or third time either.

Whether she was putting on teddy bear shows on boarding school beds or swordfighting on the streets of London, Eddie never stopped trying to achieve her dreams of becoming a performer.

Brimming with her distinctively surreal humour and disarming candour, Believe Me tells the story of a person who never took no for an answer.

©2017 Eddie Izzard (P)2017 Penguin Audio Biographies & Memoirs Entertainment & Celebrities Performing Arts Funny Celebrity Comedy Witty Memoir Biography

Critic Reviews

"Comic genius.... Entertainment incarnate." (Telegraph)

"Laughter trumps sorrow in candid comedian Eddie Izzard's Believe Me." (Vanity Fair)

"A comedy gem." (Guardian)
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But in a nice way.

This is essentially a book of life musings, philosophy, and pure motivation masquerading as an autobiography, and one absolutely best enjoyed through Eddie's own slightly whimsical and non-linear style of storytelling. He claims, as a dyslexic, to think sideways rather than forwards, and absolutely represents that claim with frequent asides, footnotes, explanations, and extrapolations of his points that inform far more than the actual words of the book ever could. It's not the most direct or easy route from start to finish, and that is exactly the Eddie way.

It's like having your ears being covered in BEES

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This is the best Audiobook I’ve ever listened to. There is no better way to listen to an autobiography by the person themselves and Eddie has such a way of telling his many many stories. I loved every minute, but especially all the magical FOOTNOTES! 😂 Im sure it can’t be the same rich experience reading the book - couldn’t recommend this audiobook enough. Thank you Eddie 😊

Absolute winner - if there is one book to download it’s this one!

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Hard won skillz on display. Thanks Mr Izzard! Life skills, comedy timing skills, storytelling stills, stamina skills. All the yes to this.

Loved it

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So good and loved the footnotes really added to it. Such a great story teller

Footnotes were classic

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I just want to thank Edward for making me laugh, cry and feel inspired to believe I can be anything I want. Thanks xx

Awesome, as always darling!

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Firstly, I hate books in which celeb bios have excessive footnotes but thankfully audio books cure this, they make way more sense being spoken aloud - this is how losing your train of thought and going off on a tangent should be. I definitely think you get more out of this title because of it.. Lots of amble ramblings not in the book.

Overall, I did find it a little long and probably a little bit more in-depth than I expected /wanted but I can't fault listening to his beautiful voice. He is so humble that he makes his amazing feats of multiple marathons seem normal, like anyone could decide tomorrow to do it. Not so, the secret ingredient really is determination and grit and not everyone has this in abundant qualities Like eddie does..

Just to let you know, I work for Audible, but the views expressed in this review are 100% my own.

Read delightfully by the author himself

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In the opening of the book it takes Eddie about five minutes to get past the Audiobook intro and into the actual book after getting distracted talking about the difference in spelling of the French words for "poison" and "fish".

This sets the tone for this autobiography, which hits us with the heaviest part first (the untimely death of Eddie's mother when he was a child) and goes on to chronicle his life in a way that shows that anything he sets his mind to hard enough, he can achieve. Well, except girls. Girls are hard.

Eddie's rambling form of narrative, which has long been his trademark in stand-up, serves him well here, in a story where the footnotes and asides (some insightful, some humorous, and some just him deciding to google something while reading the audiobook) are as entertaining as the book itself.

Loved it.

A rambling good tale

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Don't let the footnotes put you off (they do at first) and stick with him. It's a window into what drives a remarkable man. It inspires and I now Believe.

Footnote

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I've always liked Eddie Izzard, and the best thing I can say about this book is that I don't like him any the less for having listened to it. Because, frankly, that's always a risk with autobiographies, especially when read by the writer.

Pure comedy this is not. Don't listen to it if you expect something like his standup. It's hard to detect too much structure to this memoir. It moves in a quasi-chronological way for a while, then seems to hop about thematically later on. And whereas in his standup he seems to ramble endlessly, then suddenly all the strands come together very cleverly, less of the strands seem to tie together in his memoirs. He also annoys me by saying "footnote", and "end of footnote" ad infinitum.

This whole book could have been half as long, but overall listening to this in the car was like a daily commute with a witty but eccentric friend. If you're an Izzard fan you're likely to appreciate the company. If not, you might prefer to seek out another companion.

Likable but rambling car companion

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I have over 100 titles from Audible, but this is top of my list of recommendations. I think when you decide to purchase/listen to an autobiography, you're hoping to get a sense of the writer/reader (I won't buy an autobiography not read by the author). That's typically because you have a sense of admiration for their life/career. I didn't know a lot about Eddie Izzard. I'd vaguely remembered him from a few chat shows in the 90s. But living away from the UK, I had little idea of his success. Eddie had plotted his own career, and it largely involved starting small, relying on word of mouth, and building towards the goal. I'd kind of remembered he would wear women's clothing. I'd seen him in a few movies. I vaguely remembered something about running a lot of marathons. I didn't really have a strong sense of who he was. He wasn't on TV where I live in NZ, so his profile outside the UK was not high. But I saw the book and thought "Ok, this might be interesting".

What I'll say about this audio-book is that it very much gives the listener a sense of who Eddie Izzard is. For me: a much stronger sense than any other autobiography. Eddie could probably have read the words from the book version in 8 hours or so. This book is around 14 and 1/2. What sets it apart is the "footnotes". Eddie will be reading his book, but remember something more, and 'ad-lib' more information that really adds to the story. It felt very intimate, and he seems to open up to the listener, and you get a very comprehensive sense of the person reading. I found it very enjoyable.
As someone who would very vigorously ignore a bloke in a dress (I don't think I'd be rude, but I'd probably cross the street to avoid eye contact), I now feel I understand the difficulty trans-gender people face, and this book has changed my perceptions. To enjoy this book, I think you'd want to enjoy his humour. If you're reading this review, you've probably heard of Eddie Izzard, and are interested in his life. I whole-heartedly recommend the book if you fit that criteria. I really doubt you'll be disappointed. If you've not listened to/seen his standup comedy, have a look on the 'net. Start with a search of "Darth Vader in the Death Star Canteen" If it makes you laugh, then give this book a go............ A wonderful human being with a fantastic outlook on life.

I'd give this six stars if I could............

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