I Think the Nurses are Stealing My Clothes: The Very Best of Linda Smith

by Linda Smith

Other authorsWarren Lakin (Editor)
Paperback, 2007

Status

Missing

Call number

828.9202

Genres

Collection

Fiction

Publication

Hodder Paperback (2007), 384 pages

Description

'One of the smartest, funniest and most sweet-natured people I ever encountered ... Her voice lit up Radio 4's News Quiz, she was brilliant on QI and she tirelessly travelled the UK as one of the most respected and loved comics on the circuit.' STEPHEN FRY Stephen Fry spoke for much of middle England when he responded to the news of Linda Smith's tragic death of cancer, aged 48, earlier this year. Linda was the brilliant mainstay of Radio 4s The News Quiz, Just a Minute, and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue for many years. She was just establishing her career on TV through blistering performances on Have I Got News for You, QI and Room 101, when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Linda was one of the few women to conquer the male dominated world of comedy and she had the wit and the charm to win over millions of male and female fans in equal measure. She had an eye for the absurdities of modern life and loved to prick the egos of the pompous and the vain. She could be savage about the people she despised too. When she spoke of the "dead devil-eyes of Nicky Campbell" she meant it. When she called David Mellor, "the thinking woman's fat ugly bastard", she meant it even more. When she called David Blunkett "Satan's bearded folk singer", it was a simple statement of fact. No wonder then Linda was voted the 'wittiest person alive' by Radio 4 listeners in 2002. In this brilliant anthology, we go right back to the start of Linda's career and re-live her very best material from the picket lines of the Miners' Strike, to the Edinburgh Festival and on to her mainstream success on BBC radio and TV, and as touring comedian loved up and down the country. THE ESSENTIAL LINDA SMITH is being compiled and edited by her partner of twenty-three years, Warren Lakin. The book also carries contributions from her extensive fan club including: Paul Merton, Graham Norton, Clive Anderson, Bill Bailey, Jo Brand, Alan Davies, Jack Dee, Dawn French, Stephen Fry, Tony Hawks, Eddie Izzard, Matt Lucas, Nicholas Parsons and Alexei Sayle amongst others. It will be the must-have gift for comedy fans and Radio 4 listeners this Christmas.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member JamesCotton
Everyone should read this book, even if you didn't agree (politically) with this wonderful, unfortunately late, person, her turn of phrase will bring many a smile.
3 more
LibraryThing member the.ken.petersen
Linda Smith was a comedian. I have purposely used the male version of the term, not because she was the Margaret Thatcher of comedy, more macho than her male colleagues, but because she didn't feel the need to make constant jokes about "ladies problems". She was funny about politics, everyday life,
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 etc. She told her stories from the point of view of Linda Smith, who happened to be female. She wasn't ashamed of this and didn't waste time explaining the fact.
This book is not a biography (although for ease of cataloguing, I have tagged it as such), it is more a celebration of a career, cut short too soon. It only covers her career and we get only passing references to her family, friends and external interests.
Each chapter begins with an appreciation from someone intrinsic to that particular stage in Linda's career and is followed by a script of her work at that time. The scripts are occasionally annoying because, on stage, Linda often inter reacted with her audience. this works well but, comes across less appealingly in the written word. This, however, is a minor niggle in a thoroughly enjoyable book. A reminder of the lady who, I believe, would have become the first comedienne to gain the hero status of a Hancock, or a Leno.
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LibraryThing member kevinashley
Linda Smith was an English standup comedian who did a good deal of varied radio and TV work and who died far too young. This book is a collection of material from every stage of her career, together with memories of her from colleagues and friends.

If you already knew of Linda Smith, you wouldn't
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 have needed that introduction, and you would probably already know if you would like to read this book. If you didn't know of her already, I realise that the introduction above doesn't really help you decide whether to read it. Comedy, like music and many other things, is a matter of taste that can be difficult to explain. Many people found Linda Smith funny, and many probably wondered why she didn't achieve greater success. The reason for that may be down to what she wanted from life and work, and to the type of person she was. That sense of who she was comes across very strongly in this collection, both in the material itself and in the reminiscing of those who worked with her. In that sense, this is a very good book, better than many collections of the work of comedians.

The material is varied in quality, but it's a good reflection of the sweep of her career and her development as a performer. Most of it really brings a smile to the face. One gem that's stuck in my mind:

To be honest, once you've decided you've got a favourite chair, you don't like change of any kind.

There's a reasonable selection of photographs to go with the career history that is the sort of thread running through the book. Overall, an enjoyable read, best treated as a sweetie jar to be dipped into now and again rather than consumed at one or two sittings.
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LibraryThing member dtw42
Linda Smith was a clever and funny woman, much liked by the Radio-4-audience demographic. Some of this comes across in this book, but sadly it doesn't really do her justice. There are two problems. Firstly, the first couple of parts of the book, giving excerpts from her standup whilst on the way
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 up, feel dated because of the political content: lots of material about the miners' strike, that will mean very little to anyone non-British or born after about 1976 (and still feels very of-its-time even to the rest of us). Secondly, it takes skilful editing to transfer the rambling, freeform spoken language of standup to the page successfully, and the editors haven't really managed it all that well. They state in the Acknowledgements that the book was put together in three months: the question is, why? Was the publisher afraid that if they took six months over it, we'd all have forgotten who she was? There are some transcription blunders: misspelling of people's names ('Oliver Sachs'? surely Sacks) and unusual words ('doh-zee-doh'? surely do-si-do), and awkward spots where onstage Linda said something like "...and go like that", which was clearly accompanied by some gesture or mime, but the printed text gives no indication of what it was.

Nevertheless, some other sections work better: Linda's contributions to radio programmes such as The News Quiz, Booked, The Beaton Generation, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, and so on, being at least semi-scripted, are more readable as prose.

Included are a section of photos from 1985 to 2004, a few playbills/posters from early standup shows, and some nice commissioned cartoons from Steve Bell, Martin Rowson, and Phill Jupitus.
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Language

English

Original language

English

Physical description

384 p.; 5.08 inches

ISBN

0340938471 / 9780340938478

Barcode

91100000179032

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