Tangled Web UK Review November 2007
Driving Miss Smith: A Biography of Linda Smith by
Warren Lakin
hbk out December 07
Published by Hodder
at £18.99
In autumn 2004, I went to buy tickets to see comedian Linda
Smith, only to be told that the show had been cancelled because she was
poorly. By February 2006 - a month after her forty-eighth birthday - she
was dead.
Warren Lake was Linda's partner for twenty-three years and this
book is his tribute to her. It charts her working class childhood in Erith,
her friendships and a career which started with small acting parts at
amateur clubs and progressed to successful solo tours. It details her love
of tearooms and gardening and illustrates her intelligence and rationalism
- she was president of the British Humanist Association from 2004 until
her death.
If you're a lover of live comedy as I am, chances are you've seen
all of Linda's friends and colleagues on tour, as they included the
illustrious Jo Brand, Dara O'Briain, Fred MacAulay, Mark Steel and
Arnold Brown. She was esteemed by fellow comedians and audiences
alike.
She died of ovarian cancer, which kills 12 women in Britain every
day, and Warren is donating a percentage of his royalties to Ovarian
Cancer Action. Currently only 30% of women survive this disease. He
has also founded The Friends of Linda Smith which supports various
projects in her memory and can be found at
www.lindasmithcomedy.co.uk
(
Carol Anne Davis
Author of Children Who Kill)
Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online
