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  • David Mitchell: Back Story

  • By: David Mitchell
  • Narrated by: David Mitchell
  • Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (5,464 ratings)
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David Mitchell: Back Story

By: David Mitchell
Narrated by: David Mitchell
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Summary

Shortlisted for: Biography/Autobiography of the Year - Specsavers National Book Awards 2012

David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look, has written a book about his life. 

As well as giving a specific account of every single time he's scored some smack, this disgusting memoir also details:

  • The singular, pit bull-infested charm of the FRP (‘Flat Roofed Pub’)
  • The curious French habit of injecting everyone in the arse rather than the arm
  • Why, by the time he got to Cambridge, he really, really needed a drink
  • The pain of being denied a childhood birthday party at McDonalds
  • The satisfaction of writing jokes about suicide
  • How doing quite a lot of walking around London helps with his sciatica
  • Trying to pretend he isn’t a total **** at Robert Webb’s wedding
  • That he has fallen in love a LOT, but rarely done anything about it
  • Why it would be worse to bump into Michael Palin than Hitler on holiday
  • That he’s not David Mitchell the novelist, despite what David Miliband might think
©2012 David Mitchell (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

What listeners say about David Mitchell: Back Story

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Total Joy

Sometimes, just sometimes, you scan the 'New Releases' section on Audible and you see something pop up that you immediately know that you are going to buy, that you are going to love and that you are going to bang on about to your friends.... immediately!



This has happened only twice to me - once with the Alan Partridge autobiography, and again with this title. Both are unabridged readings of an original work that you want to read,, read by the only person that you would allow or trust to read the material out loud to you.



If you like David Mitchell and his style of verbose wit and dry humour, which often manages to be both down to earth and surrealistic at the same time, then you will love this, not least for the fact that he delivers it like he does all of his material - in a natural and fluid monologue.



My only criticism is that you must be fully awake to appreciate it all, because his delivery is so fast and rich, that you will miss a lot if you are either tired or not paying enough attention, but this is the listener's issue really - not David's.



I won't spoil any of the fun by discussing the content because that's why you will buy this book, but I will say that you might want to be careful listening to it on public transport, unless you have no qualms about sounding like and looking like a gibbering idiot to people who happen to either be looking your way or within earshot of you.



I was on a packed commuter train to Leeds when David started talking to me about the vagaries and consistencies of Agatha Christie's characters; Poirot and Hastings, and I had to stop because I was starting to shudder and cry. When he gets your funny bone, he REALLY gets your funny bone.



Personally, I do not care how revealing or non-revealing David Mitchell is about his personal life, I just love listening to him talk and rant, because he is better at it than I am, and I tend to agree with 99% of what he says.



Guilty pleasures? (listen to the book and you will find out.)

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66 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Really enjoyable

One of my favourite audiobooks so far. The book has a nice balance - part biography, part comic asides, structured around a wander around London. It's perhaps a little shy in places, and I suspect there are some warts left uncovered, but fair enough. DM is refreshingly candid about his desire for success and his pleasure in enjoying it, and if I ever met him it would be nice to clap him on the back and say "well done you". Except he would find that mortifying, and I would be mortified at having mortified him, and he would feel bad about my feeling bad, etc.



Anyway, the bit about why we should be grateful we don't live in a meritocracy nearly resulted in spittle on the windscreen.

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35 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb

Mitchell is an incredibly witty man, his misery cheers me up. His book is narrated by himself and is very well read.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A funny and honest listen.

This is another example I think where listening to an audiobook being read, particularly by the author, is far superior than reading it from a book.



David Mitchell is both very funny and very self-efacing. Not a hint of smugness that some may have expected. He is certainly not complacement and is very quick to say how lucky he is to be where he is.



However it is the chapter on his now wife Victoria that is particularly poignant. He is so much in love and it is very nice to hear how two very well-suited people got together.



Oh, and have a streetmap of London handy if you can.



Another great listen from a funny man.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

I loved this!!

I have never seen Peep Show, but have enjoyed David Mitchell's dry wit on lots of panel shows. I was so glad that he was reading this as you cannot imagine anyone else. I listen in the car and he cheered me on my journeys. Also his paean of love to Victoria Coren was so touching. They seem to be a perfect match. Thank you David.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Honest and Heartfelt

Would you consider the audio edition of David Mitchell: Back Story to be better than the print version?

Extremely well read by a man of more depth than his public persona permits you to see, a absolute joy to listen to.

Any additional comments?

Engaging from start to finish, the final chapter was especially moving in his comments about 'Victoria' - now what I expected, an altogether funny, moving and insightful audiobook.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

superb read / listen

an insight into the world of a comedy genius and his odd goings on. He's not so different to you and me, apparently

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

This Man Has Issues!

Yes he has issues, but frankly who doesn't! This is a very witty, incisive and elegantly written account / rant of events and related thoughts from childhood through to his professional success. It gets 5 stars on the basis of the excellence of the recounting, including amusing tangental perspectives of the more mundane aspects. Very good!

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Funny and moving

David Mitchell reads his own life story as if on a walk around London, clever in itself. I loved the way he describes his relationships with his parents, his friends and Victoria (had a good blub during that chapter - so romantic). I have completely altered my ideas about the person I thought he was from his on screen and radio persona. I like him all the more. A great listen from a lovely human being.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

If the Devil and Al Qaeda invented a sound.

I enjoyed peep show and Mitchell's performance...obviously your exposure to his vocal quirk is watered down by the very fact there are others in the show. He's not constantly talking.
If the Devil and Al Qaeda through a joint venture decided to create a new musical note that would piss off / bore / anger / make feel unwell / anger again.Then Mitchell's voice is what it would sound like. Out with the delivery the story-(ies) within are on the mild side. Mildly entertaining stories a plenty, his geeky youth-constant reminders that he wasn't a "spoilt bastard", his bad back? I had had enough and turned off at the end of a mammoth tale regarding a lobster.

No thanks. No thank you. Nope!

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5 people found this helpful