'It isn’t like anything I’ve ever done before. It comes from the heart.'

Gyles Brandreth has written his first autobiography, at the age of 73.

Odd Boy Out promises insight into the broadcaster, comic and former MP’s ‘often eccentric and at times tragic family background and early years’.

Brandreth told trade website The Bookseller: ‘This isn’t the autobiography I had expected to write. My wife said to me, "If you’re going to tell your story, tell it properly—dig a bit deeper."

‘That’s what I have tried to do and in doing so I’ve discovered things about myself, and my family, that I didn’t know before. It’s called Odd Boy Out because as I was writing it I realised I was a bit of an oddity as a child.

"The book tries to explain how I became who I am. It’s a book about childhood and growing up. It’s about how our parents make us what we are. There is a bit of name-dropping along the way (from Laurence Olivier to Baga Chipz) and some funny stories that people who have seen or heard me on Just A Minute and 'QI would expect, but it isn’t like anything I’ve ever done before. It comes from the heart.’

The book will be published by Penguin Michael Joseph in hardback, e-book and audio on September 16.

Brandreth has previously written scores of books, from an acclaimed biography of Prince Philip to The Bedside Book of Great Sexual Disasters; Oscar Wilde mysteries to Westminster diaries and joke books to collections of theatrical anecdotes.

Published: 4 Jun 2021