
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.


And Away... Paperback – 26 May 2022
Bob Mortimer (Author) See search results for this author |
Amazon Price | New from | Used from |
Kindle Edition
"Please retry" | — | — |
Audible Audiobooks, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
£0.00
| Free with your Audible trial |
-
Buy 4, save 5% . |
Buy at least 4 items of your choice and save 5%. Offered by Amazon.co.uk. Shop items
- Choose from over 20,000 locations across the UK
- FREE unlimited deliveries at no additional cost for all customers
- Find your preferred location and add it to your address book
- Dispatch to this address when you check out
Enhance your purchase
‘The most life-affirming, joyful read of the year’ - Sunday Times
‘Winningly heartfelt’ – The Guardian
‘A triumph’ – Daily Mail
Bob Mortimer’s life was trundling along happily until suddenly in 2015 he was diagnosed with a heart condition that required immediate surgery and forced him to cancel an upcoming tour. The episode unnerved him, but forced him to reflect on his life so far. This is the framework for his hilarious and moving memoir, And Away…Although his childhood in Middlesbrough was normal on the surface, it was tinged by the loss of his dad, and his own various misadventures (now infamous from his appearances on Would I Lie to You?), from burning down the family home to starting a short-lived punk band called Dog Dirt. As an adult, he trained as a solicitor and moved to London. Though he was doing pretty well (the South London Press once crowned him ‘The Cockroach King’ after a successful verdict), a chance encounter in a pub in the 1980s with a young comedian going by the name Vic Reeves set his life on a different track. And now, six years on, the heart condition that once threatened his career has instead led to new success on BBC2’s Gone Fishing.
Warm, profound, and irrepressibly funny, And Away… is Bob’s full life story (with a few lies thrown in for good measure.)
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions13 x 2.2 x 19.8 cm
- PublisherGallery UK
- Publication date26 May 2022
- ISBN-101398505323
- ISBN-13978-1398505322
Customers who bought this item also bought
Special offers and product promotions
- Get any 2 for £8. Offered by Amazon.co.uk. Shop items
- Buy at least 4 items of your choice and save 5%. Offered by Amazon.co.uk. Shop items
Product description
Review
‘…(a) fascinating and often poignant memoir.’ ― Daily Express & Daily Mirror
‘The book, too, grows more confident in talking about serious subjects as it progresses and it’s the honesty and openness that he allows in Gone Fishing that make And Away…, by the end, an unexpectedly moving read’ ― The Observer
‘A glorious collection of stories from an extraordinary life. Once you put it down, you may get the immediate urge to pick it up again. Yes, you couldn’t let it lie.’ ― Yorkshire Magazine
‘Bob Mortimer is pretty much established as a national treasure…So it's great to hear his story of how he got there first-hand…In the end he has become loved for being himself. And maybe that's the best type of success of all.’ ― Beyond the Joke
‘Bob’s recent reinvention via the …Gone Fishing series means a whole new audience might indeed be surprised at how many different things he’s done and will particularly admire the non-showbiz route to stardom in our age of driven but ultimately vacuous and content-free superstars.’ ― Yorkshire Bylines
‘It’s a precarious world, but And Away... is a heartfelt testament to the magic of finding your happy place within it.’ ― The Sunday Times
‘(a) touching, funny autobiography.' ― Observer
‘(a) comic masterpiece of a memoir: melancholically amusing, warm and witty’ ― Strong Words
‘Filled with anecdotes from Mortimer’s life, And Away… contrasts humour with a deeper contemplation of life following his open-heart surgery’ ― Radio Times
‘…deftly combines all the varied aspects of Mortimer’s eventful, fascinating life and paints a fully three-dimensional picture of this much-loved figure’ ― Chortle
‘…it’s everything you would want from the man who is the highlight of every show you see him on’ ― The Independent
About the Author
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Product details
- Publisher : Gallery UK (26 May 2022)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1398505323
- ISBN-13 : 978-1398505322
- Reading age : 13+ years, from customers
- Dimensions : 13 x 2.2 x 19.8 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 November 2021
Top reviews from United Kingdom
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Bob’s autobiography is every bit as funny, warm, touching and delightful as I had hoped. I read and listened to the audiobook. Bob reads the book himself which always adds a special dimension to an autobiography, and it really is a treat to listen to.
Sections of the book will be really familiar to fans of Would I Lie To You with many of Bob’s unbelievable but true tales from there also featured in the book. Viewers of Gone Fishing will also recognise stories as the gentle reflections Bob shared on screen with Paul are also echoed here.
There’s no arrogance in this book. There’s some self-criticism, but also just a sense of joy of the opportunities a shy boy from Middlesborough has had. The ending in particular feels very true to the image of Bob I have in my mind after three decades of watching him - funny, silly and kind. What better kind of person to spend a few hours with learning about their world.
He's not lost his North Eastern roots (nice mention of 'scraps' at the chip shop) and it's a journey of going down a career path towards being a solicitor until one night he decides to checkout a comedy night at a local pub..
Before long he's joining in with Vic Reeves (aka Jim Moir) and they're signed to Channel Four. There's some doubt that it's more than a flash in the pan and there's a hint throughout that he feels he's intruding on the whole showbiz scene. He's quite cutting about his own a ting abilities (or lack of them as he sees it).
BM comes across as a nice bloke who to a certain extent got lucky that night he went to see Vic Reeves but who has more than made it into a double act.