Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens

Description

The stand-up comedian of his generation. Star of stage and screen. Tireless supporter of charity. Runner. Political campaigner. Fashion icon. Human. There is no one quite like Eddie Izzard. The stand-up comedian of his generation. Star of stage and screen. Tireless supporter of charity. Runner. Political campaigner. Fashion icon. Human. There is no one quite like Eddie Izzard. This is the story of how a boy who wanted to become a professional footballer and win the lead in Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat found comedy. Affecting, witty and nothing less than rousing, readers will, as Eddie himself says, 'look at my life and say, 'If that idiot transvestite can run a whole bunch of marathons, play the Hollywood Bowl, and travel across France with a French-speaking tour, then what's holding me back?''

Eddie Izzard is a world-renowned comedian, actor, writer, runner, and activist. She made her West End debut in 1993 in a one-man show called Live at the Ambassadors, for which she received an Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement. She recently appeared on television as Dr Abel Gideon in Hannibal, and she produced and starred in the FX Networks series The Riches. Her films include Valkyrie; Ocean's Thirteen and Ocean's Twelve; Across the Universe; Mystery Men; Shadow of the Vampire; The Cat's Meow; Lost Christmas; Castles in the Sky; and Whisky Galore! Her stage appearances include David Mamet's Race and The Cryptogram; the title role in Marlowe's Edward II; 900 Oneonta; and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in London and on Broadway, which garnered her a Tony nomination for Best Actor. Izzard's hit one-man shows include Dress to Kill, Stripped, and Force Majeure. Her performance in Dress to Kill earned her two Emmy Awards. In 2010, the documentary Believe- The Eddie Izzard Story received an Emmy nomination. In 2009, Izzard ran forty-three marathons in fifty-one days throughout the United Kingdom, and in 2016, she ran twenty-seven marathons in twenty-seven days across South Africa in honour of Nelson Mandela's twenty-seven years in prison. By running these seventy marathons she has helped raise e4.8 million ($6 million) for the UK charity Sport Relief.

King of the Universe . . . Comic genius . . . Entertainment incarnate * Telegraph * Izzard is Wikipedia in heels. He's made his career out of hilarious, dizzying, surreal routines held up by their own daft logic . . . A force of nature * Radio Times * A comedy gem * Guardian * Izzard has a knack for reducing centuries' worth of history to just a few exquisite words (the Romans were just 'fascist plumbers', for example) * Time Out * The funniest man in England -- John Cleese The funniest man in, well, pretty much all of the known universe * Los Angeles Times * A consistent intelligence underpins Izzard's whimsy * Chortle *