A Comedian's Prayer Book

Description

A Comedian's Prayer Book. The title is a worry, isn't it?... God is a tough audience as far as audible response is concerned, but at least you don't have to explain the references. In this collection of prayers, much-loved comedian, broadcaster and radio host Frank Skinner has tried to retain the bare candour of the rehearsal-room improvisation - to show what faith feels like, from the inside - but infused it with all the production values required to make it a passable public entertainment. In it are his convictions, his questions, his fears, his doubts, his elations - all presented in an eavesdropper-friendly form. Hell, Judgement, atheism, money, faith and the X-Men all feature: it's a bit like reading the Bible, except you only get one side of the conversation, and all the jokes are left in.

Frank Skinner's live career began in 1987 when he spent 400 of his last 435 booking a room at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Four years later in 1991 he returned to the city and took home comedy's most prestigious prize, The Perrier Award. Frank created The Frank Skinner Show (ITV), which is widely credited as setting the tone for the modern comedic chat show. With David Baddiel, he created and presented both Fantasy Football and Baddiel & Skinner Unplanned, and, alongside The Lightning Seeds, the pair also wrote the seminal football anthem Three Lions. More recently, Frank created and hosted three series of Frank Skinner's Opinionated for BBC2, hosted seven series of BBC1's Room 101 and seven series of Portrait/Landscape Artist of the Year for Sky Arts. He has presented documentaries covering passions including Muhammad Ali (BBC1), Elvis (BBC4) and investigating the life of George Formby (BBC4). His Absolute Radio show has won three gold awards for Best Speech Programme (2011 and 2014) and Best Entertainment/Comedy Production (2017) at the ARIAs and saw him inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame in December 2015. For BBC Radio 4, Frank hosted comedy panel show The Rest is History, and wrote and starred in comedy drama series Don't Start alongside Katherine Parkinson. As an author, Frank has published Dispatches from the Sofa; a collection of columns he wrote for The Times and has written two autobiographies, the first of which, Frank Skinner, was the top selling autobiography of 2002, spending 46 weeks in The Sunday Times Bestseller List. His latest stand-up show, Showbiz, has enjoyed a sold out national tour and subsequent sold out residency at the West End's Garrick Theatre.

This is a fine, brave book, beautifully expressed. Richard Dawkins had better look to his laurels. * Daily Mail * It's far from being a comfortable read, though it never ceases to be amusing and thoughtful. * Christian Today * The book is a simple, unpretentious invitation to kneel alongside someone who has experienced the lows and highs of life, who has grown up through that experience, and has found that a conversational relationship with God is essential to living kindly, thoughtfully and well. Anyone new to faith or for whom prayer has become jaded and routine may well find in it an unconventional yet rich source of encouragement to keep on keeping on * Reform * Skinner's thoughts on religion are far more than just amusing: there is a bold freshness to his voice. * Times Literary Supplement * 'Skinner's tome also asks some big questions, but is ultimately a prayerbook with a small p. You mightn't hear God laugh at the jokes, but surely He approves.' * Irish Examiner - Weekend Supplement * Skinner uses the book to open up about his ongoing relationship with God and the Catholic Church - and his words make very compelling reading. * Sorted * The questions he raises are serious, and central to Christian theology, and he expresses them much more pithily than most professional theologians...This is a fine, brave book, beautifully expressed. * The Mail on Sunday * He takes laying bare your soul to a level I've never come across before by a well-known name. * The Tablet *