Grub Street Irregular

An engaging, wickedly funny and splendidly anecdotal memoir of a career spent among writers, agents, publishers and bookmen and women of every stripe.

Jeremy Lewis's first memoir, 'Playing for Time', was hailed by James Lees-Milne as 'the funniest and best written book I've read for years.' His second, 'Kindred Spirits', was described by John Carey as 'sheer pleasure from start to finish'. Now he has written a third autobiographical account of his encounters with literary figures over the last two decades which fittingly caps the previous two.

A rich sense of the absurd and a profound understanding of the extreme comicality of life, together with a delight in the oddities of human behaviour, are the hallmarks of Jeremy Lewis's world. Bumbling figures of the book trade and eccentric luminaries of Grub Street alike are grist to his mill; his characterisations of André Deutsch, James Lees-Milne, Alan Ross, Richard Cobb, Barbara Skelton and dozens of others – are written with huge warmth and affection.
Seldom has modern literary life been described with such a sense of relish and enjoyment; and seldom has the reader been so richly entertained by a gallery of eccentric portraits.

Reviews

‘Jeremy Lewis…is a funny, perceptive, elegant writer’ Philip French, Observer

‘…a particularly good year for English–very English–autobiographies, among them Jeremy Lewis's…poignant and hilarious.’ Craig Brown, The Spectator

‘…a third enjoyable volume of memoirs…he writes so well, with such clarity and seeming simplicity…which is why his memoirs are so entertaining.’ Alan Judd, The Spectator

About the author

Jeremy Lewis, a former publisher at Collins, Chatto and OUP, is the author of 'Playing for Time' and 'Kindred Spirits' (both published by Collins), as well as biographies of Cyril Connolly, Tobias Smollett and Allen Lane (Pengiun Special). A former deputy editor of the 'London Magazine', he is a contributing editor to 'The Oldie' and the 'Literary Review'.