How Not to Be a Boy

by Robert Webb

Overview

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Robert Webb tried to follow the rules for being a man:

Don’t cry

Drink beer

Play rough

Don’t talk about feelings

Looking back over his life he asks whether these rules are actually any use. To anyone.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786890115
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	519,526
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Webb has been a male for his whole life. As such, he has been a boy in a world of fighting, pointless posturing, and the insistence that he stop crying. As an adult man, he has enjoyed better luck, both in his work as the Webb half of Mitchell & Webb in the Sony award-winning That Mitchell & Webb Sound and the Bafta award-winning That Mitchell & Webb Look, and as permanent man-boy Jeremy in the acclaimed Peep Show. He also played Bertie Wooster in the acclaimed West End run of Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense. Robert has been a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and the New Statesman, and now lives in London with his wife and daughters, where he continues trying to be funny and to fumble beyond general expectations of manhood.

@arobertwebb

Table of Contents

Overture 1

Act 1

1 Boys Can't Get Enough of Dad 21

2 Boys Aren't Shy 39

3 Boys Love Sport 58

4 Boys Are Brave 79

5 Boys Are Never Teacher's Pet 101

6 Boys Don't Fall in Love (with other boys) 124

7 Boys Are Not Virgins 138

8 Boys Don't Cry 158

Act 2

9 Men Are Organised 197

10 Men Don't Take Themselves Too Seriously 216

11 Men Don't Need Therapy 239

12 Men Understand Women 261

13 Men Are Good at Directions 280

14 Men Know Who They Are 301

Editorial Reviews

‘Quite simply brilliant. I (genuinely) cried. I (genuinely) laughed out loud. It's profound, touching, personal yet universal . . . I loved it’ J.K. ROWLING

‘With enormous poignancy and insight . . . Webb’s early portrait of himself as a hapless underdog navigating the boulder-strewn path of masculinity is vividly drawn and very funny . . . Echoes of Adrian Mole’ Guardian

‘Frank and compelling . . . Laugh-out-loud funny . . . also, in parts, blink-back-tears sad. Why would I blink back tears rather than give full rein to the emotion? Well, Webb can explain’ Mail on Sunday

‘Written with wit and clarity, How Not To Be a Boy is a funny, rueful, truthful book. I enjoyed every page’ STEPHEN FRY

‘A witty, honest coming-of-age story with a subtext that tackles masculinity and manhood. Webb has a storytelling skill many would kill for’ IAN RANKIN

From the Publisher

Frank and compelling . . . Laugh-out-loud funny . . . also, in parts, blink-back-tears sad. Why would I blink back tears rather than give full rein to the emotion? Well, Webb can explain

Mail on Sunday

Quite simply brilliant. I (genuinely) cried. I (genuinely) laughed out loud. It's profound, touching, personal yet universal . . . I loved it

J.K. ROWLING

Funny, poignant, revealing

Daily Telegraph

A witty, honest coming-of-age story with a subtext that tackles masculinity and manhood. Webb has a storytelling skill many would kill for

IAN RANKIN

A brilliant telling of a sad story, it is also a manifesto for a change in attitudes . . . I laughed innumerable times and cried twice . . . You should give a copy to any young male you care about *****

Sunday Express S Magazine

Timely and candid, told with great humour, warmth and compassion. A much-needed contribution to the vital conversation about the damage gender can do

JUNO DAWSON

With enormous poignancy and insight . . . Webb's early portrait of himself as a hapless underdog navigating the boulder-strewn path of masculinity is vividly drawn and very funny . . . Echoes of Adrian Mole

Guardian

Takes us deftly from hilarity to heart-stopping hurt . . . A truly great read, full of heart

DAWN FRENCH

Simply brilliant

JOANNA LUMLEY

Written with wit and clarity, How Not To Be a Boy is a funny, rueful, truthful book. I enjoyed every page

STEPHEN FRY

Webb’s comic voice pierces even the darkest moments of his life, but the strong reviews How Not To Be A Boy received after its U.K. publication last fall suggest that he does some heavy lifting here as well.

The AV Club