David Mitchell: Back Story Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

David Mitchell (Author, Narrator), HarperCollins Publishers Limited (Publisher)

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Shortlisted for: Biography/Autobiography of the Year - Specsavers National Book Awards 2012

David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look, has written a book about his life.

As well as giving a specific account of every single time he's scored some smack, this disgusting memoir also details:

The singular, pit bull-infested charm of the FRP (‘Flat Roofed Pub’)
The curious French habit of injecting everyone in the arse rather than the arm
Why, by the time he got to Cambridge, he really, really needed a drink
The pain of being denied a childhood birthday party at McDonalds
The satisfaction of writing jokes about suicide
How doing quite a lot of walking around London helps with his sciatica
Trying to pretend he isn’t a total **** at Robert Webb’s wedding
That he has fallen in love a LOT, but rarely done anything about it
Why it would be worse to bump into Michael Palin than Hitler on holiday
That he’s not David Mitchell the novelist, despite what David Miliband might think

Listening Length

9 hours and 25 minutes
Author

David Mitchell
Narrator

David Mitchell
Audible release date

11 October 2012
Language

English
Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers Limited
ASIN

B00NE2CSM4
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	9 hours and 25 minutes
Author	David Mitchell
Narrator	David Mitchell
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	11 October 2012
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00NE2CSM4
Best Sellers Rank	1,730 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 7 in Comedy (Audible Books & Originals) 8 in Comedy (Books) 41 in Performing Arts (Books)

Customer reviews

5 star		52%
4 star		26%
3 star		16%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Australia

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kez

What a walk!

Reviewed in Australia on 5 July 2017

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I found myself reading this at breakneck speed to emulate one of David's erudite explosions on QI or WILTY! Rarely have I read a book which has been written just exactly as the author speaks.
David spoke to me.
And I loved it.

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JG S

Four Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 10 April 2015

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It's an hilarious narrative of David Mitchell's life. Well written, insightful and fascinating.

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Graham

Excellent

Reviewed in Australia on 27 November 2014

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An excellent biography..interesting, funny and informative.

One person found this helpful

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pim

One Star

Reviewed in Australia on 15 January 2015

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Badly written David does not come over in print a TV stage personality

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Peter McGrath

Four Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 6 June 2015

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Ironical

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Janet Lee

One Star

Reviewed in Australia on 3 December 2014

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Boriing

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Rulingia

Amazing!

Reviewed in Australia on 11 October 2014

David Mitchell is a lovely writer, and what a fascinating story, which could so easily have been enormously cliquey and pretentious if not written by someone clearly terrified of being those things!

One person found this helpful

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Katrina

Great

Reviewed in Australia on 3 September 2020

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Great for a father's day gift coming up. Item as described.

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Top reviews from other countries

PeteRobbo

A Nice Approach, but Not a Towering Success

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2018

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I've enjoyed much of what I've seen from David Mitchell on television and therefore I looked forward very much to reading this, his autobiography of his story so far. However, while I enjoyed it on the whole, I found it less than completely satisfying in the end.

David uses a nice device to act as the backdrop through his pretty much chronological memory of the stages his life moved through. It turns out that he, like myself, enjoys a good walk, in his case for differing reasons, partly because of the need to stay on top of his propensity to put on too much weight if he's not careful to exercise sufficiently, but also because he simply enjoys the practice. As a result he gives the mental image of taking a walk from where he was living at the time of writing the book, (Kilburn), down through Hampstead and its environs, Belsize Park, Abbey Road, Primrose Hill, Regents Park etc etc, while recalling the major incidents of his life story along the way. I enjoyed the walk with him very much.

He covers his school days, his initially failed attempt to get into Oxford, before Cambridge eventually took him in instead and then, in common with so may of his peers, the entry into Footlights, the performing at numerous Smokers and then the Edinburgh Festival, and so on, before he eventually made it on to the BBC with, once again, so many others who've trod the same path and already regaled us with the details.

And that's where the world-weary familiarity kicked in for me. Quite simply, although as I say I like David and in particular his fabulous rants, I've simply heard far too many versions of essentially the same story from Stephen, Emma, and many others going all the way back to Peter Cook's day. They all recount that they didn't really attend many, if indeed any, lectures and just used their time at Oxbridge to get a foothold into and establish connections by which to join the others who've preceded them. I'm not denying the talent of any of them, just expressing my boredom at hearing it over and over again.

So sorry, but because of all that in my own mini-rant, I've only awarded 4 stars and not the maximum.

28 people found this helpful

John Craske

Highly Entertaining - And The Price Was Right

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 April 2020

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I must be one of the few people who bought 'Back Story' without having ever seen a David Mitchell show, film or even a single episode of any of his various TV series. In fact, I was only aware of his existence because of panel shows such as QI plus his various Youtube soapbox rants. These alone persuaded me to give his autobiography a 'go' (that said, the cheap Kindle price was also not an insignificant factor in my decision).

Anyway, it was a pittance well spent. If you like Mr Mitchell - and obviously you must do in order to purchase this book - you will greatly enjoy his recounting of his life. Entertaining, informative, well-written and honest. He comes across in print as he comes across on the telly, which is intelligent, funny and thoughtful. In short, a decent man who surely nobody could begrudge him his great success.

7 people found this helpful

Mr. Othniel Smith

Peculiarly English

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2017

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The autobiography of popular sit-com and panel-show comedian (not the novelist) David Mitchell is suffused with his trademark lowbrow verbosity.

Structured around an imaginary walk around London, designed to help ease his back pain, the narrative sees Mitchell link various landmarks to key moments in a life whose principal focus has been to develop a career in comedy. Those who are familiar with his TV persona will recognise the combination of nerdy erudition and ranting exhibitionism.

Starting with tales of middle-class life in middle England, he takes us via Cambridge University and Footlights, to his celebrated partnership with Robert Webb, and their rise to fame - which might have seemed rapid to the outside observer (they became TV regulars while still in their twenties), but was, from their perspective, painfully slow.

With moments ranging from the hilarious (e.g. young David reluctant to answer his parents doorbell because he was embarrassed about the home-made kingly regalia he was wearing at the time) to the moving (the long yearning for his eventual wife, Victoria Coren), this is a consistently entertaining read, proudly fixated on the trivial - his thoughts on weightier matters can be found elsewhere.

Anyone wishing to gain an insight into the peculiarly English combination of self-deprecation and egotism, awkwardness and loudness, emotional constipation and profound insight, could do much worse than start here.

8 people found this helpful

M. Harper

Not Ben Elton

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 October 2020

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I had read a fair part of this before I realised that the author was not the writer of 'Blackadder' and 'Upstart Crow' and all I was going to get out of this book was an account of how he wasted his time at Cambridge. This sort of thing annoys when you think of those who study at evening classes, the OU and the like. Their studies often come after doing a full days work and they meet all their own expenses. After reading this it seems to me that tuition fees came not a moment too soon.
Still, can't grumble because a man isn't somebody else and this is competently written.

2 people found this helpful

m.t.robinson

A good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 November 2020

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I've read many autobiographies but this one had a style all of its own which may not appeal to the purist - but I liked it. DM (at the time of writing) was suffering from back ache (don't ask why!) and he treats the problem by taking an extensive walk each morning, somewhat like a guided tour of the area of London in which he lived. Certain buildings (pubs, public toilets, the former BBC headquarters) and occurrences en route set him off on one of his iconoclastic rants (à la Kenneth Williams) but the whole is so well organized that we get an excellent picture of his life, life style, personality, likes and dislikes and of course, what drives him. Enjoy.

2 people found this helpful

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David Mitchell: Back Story Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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