Straight Outta Crawley by Romesh Ranganatham.

Romesh Ranganatham is a British stand-up comedian and television presenter. He was born in Crawley and this is his memoir.

I have enjoyed Romesh’s appearances on many television programmes including Live at the Apollo and Mock the Week plus many chat shows. I like his deadpan humour coupled with his ability to do a whole range of accents.

However, Straight Outta Crawley is a memoir and is a completely different vehicle to his television work. I loved how Romesh told his story in his usual television chat show manner with his trademark shooting off at tangents. I could hear his author’s voice bellowing loudly from the page.

Romesh’s stand-up comedy is good but his memoir is not a transcript of his stage show. If you are looking for humour or jokes to repeat to friends, this is NOT a book for you. Straight Outta Crawley is a story told in the fashion of a first date. Romesh is amusing and frank, for example…

I’ve read enough memoirs to know that people always describe their partner as the most wonderful, funny, intelligent person ever, and I always think it’s because they suspect their other half is going to read it. So, Leesa, if you read this, I was mainly looking at your arse.

My one sadness in my marriage is that I haven’t managed to convert Leesa to hip hop. She hates it. HATES IT. It would have been easier to convert her to Islam.

...Straight Outta Crawley has a good trawl of anecdotes but they are second rate. Romesh comes across as the bloke next door and very ordinary. I found nothing sparkling in his memoir which came across as sharing small talk with fellow dog walkers down our local park. Romesh is simply a normal bloke whose day job entertains loads of people on television. However his memoir leaves me with the impression of ships passing in the night. I found Straight Outta Crawley to be an Okay 3 star read that lacked any surprises or WOW! Factor. Although I love his stand-up comedy, it was sad to read that he has become another victim of abuse and hate mail on social media. I do NOT wish Romesh any bad feelings but I did not enjoy his memoir like I do his stand-up comedy. It was nice to read about the man behind the stand-up routines and my curiosity has been satisfied.

Straight Outta Crawley was written in 2018 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.