My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up [Hardcover]

Russell Brand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2009

Russell Brand learned early on to make a joke of fear and failure. From a troubled childhood in industrial Essex, England, to his descent into addictions to alcohol, drugs, and sex in the seamy underbelly of London, Brand has seen his share of both and miraculously lived to tell the tale. In My Booky Wook he leads readers on a rollicking journey through his disastrous school career, his infamous antics on MTV, and his multifarious sexual adventures. But this irreverent memoir is a story not simply of struggle but also of redemption, a testament to the difficulty of discovering what you want from life and the remarkable power of a bloody-minded determination to get it. My Booky Wook is a giddy trip through the brilliant mind of one of Britain's most valuable exports.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A child’s garden of vices, My Booky Wook is also a relentless ride with a comic mind clearly at the wheel. . . . The bloke can write. He rhapsodizes about heroin better than anyone since Jim Carroll. . . . Compelling. (New York Times Book Review )

“I laughed out loud at least a dozen times. . . . To my shame, I’ll admit I sort of liked My Booky Wook.” (New York Times )

“’The most talented stand-up comedian to emerge in Britain this decade.” (Daily Telegraph (London) )

“A scandalous, libidinous memoir. . . . There is nothing [Brand] won’t reveal in search of a laugh and nothing he hasn’t done in search of love or experience or oblivion. . . . . An exceptional combination of candor, ardor, and humor. (The Guardian )

“Hilarious. . . . A richly detailed memoir that’s peppered with both evocative descriptions of the author’s homeland and memorable lines... Brand promises here another tome ‘about how it feels to be famous.’ To my shame, I can’t wait.” (Entertainment Weekly )

About the Author

Russell Brand is a comedian, journalist, TV and radio presenter, and actor. He has won numerous awards including Time Out’s Comedian of the Year, Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards, Best TV Performer at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, and Most Stylish Man at GQ’s Men of the Year Awards. The first installment of his autobiography, My Booky Wook, was a New York Times bestseller.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 353 pages
• Publisher: Collins (March 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061730416
• ISBN-13: 978-0061730412
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (128 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Russell Brand is a well-known actor, radio host, and comedian in the U.K., and his star is on the rise here in the United States--he appears as Kristen Bell's new boyfriend in the recent Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and he is slated for another Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) movie early next year.

My Booky Wook has been a huge bestseller in Britain, selling more than 600,000 copies!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars R-rated, Honest Comedy, March 10, 2009

By 

risatrix "better living through comedy" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up (Hardcover)

I found *My Booky Wook* laugh-out-loud funny, but not for the faint of heart. Brand's honesty is almost child-like at times, except that he's dealing with very adult topics like depression, sex addiction, and drug use.

That honesty was precisely what made the read so compelling for me. Brand has a unique gift for non-pompous self-reflection, and refuses to bowdlerize his life just because it might offend some. His description of what it's like to take heroin deserves a place right up there with The Velvet Underground's song. It's loving and funny and unapologetic, while still acknowledging the horrific damage that addiction brings.

Brand's prose, like his personality, is deliberately flamboyant. I found myself feeling that, by all logical reasoning, I should be put off by his deliberately Dickensian flourishes. But self-knowledge saves all, and Brand combines his rococo prose with colloquial diction, self-mockery, and traces of his real, non-elite accent. In this regard, I kept thinking that Brand's style was akin to that of a very dirty P.G. Wodehouse.

The result was (dare I say it) addictive. I couldn't put the damned book down, and after finishing it I had to immediately lend it out so I wouldn't re-read it a million times.

Like all great comedians, Russell Brand turns his personal pain into comedy. Given the variety of individual senses of humor, it's impossible to guarantee that you'll find this book funny. But if you're not easily offended, you'll probably be laughing. Even if you are easily offended, you can treat this as a very honest memoir of sex and drug addiction, and be shocked that Brand tells it as a funny story.

[...] -- a site about humor and society

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny & bitter at the same time....brilliant!, January 21, 2008

By 

S. Hawk "S L Hawk" (Paris, France & Las Vegas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Booky Wook (Hardcover)

I did not know who Russell Brand was (no...I never watched "Big Brother") till I checked into a London hotel for the holidays and saw him on a holiday talk show. He is hysterically funny in a sharp, no-nonsense, "no sacred cows" manner. This book is a memoir written in a rather disorderly manner but nontheless extremey funny. His recollections and comments are fresh and at time tear jerking. A fast read, it kept me up all night. Even Americans who do not know who he is will enjoy his recollections of experiences growing up, his several stints in rehab (for various causes) and show-biz trials. Really enjoyable, I can't wait for him to write something new!

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enter his cloak of love, April 29, 2009

By 

E. Keats (Grayslake,, Il USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up (Kindle Edition)

Russel and I just flew across country together. I giggled the whole way, although he was certainly frustrating at times. Unfortunately, he was only in my kindle. (It was a bit embarrassing when the flight attendant wanted to see what I was reading, and it was a pretty raunchy part for a silver haired woman to have exposed on her lap, so to speak.)

Russel, I love you! You're a mess, but damn can you write! So far this is the only book on my Kindle requiring me to look up the meaning of words. YAY! I thought I knew what avuncular meant, but I was wrong. He made my flight fly by and increased my vocabulary! I hardly even noticed the seat in front of me grazing my forehead and the guy next to me taking up half my seat. Be well, Russell. My love to your Mum.