We are so excited be hosting an event with stand-up comedian Fern Brady to celebrate her brand new memoir, Strong Female Character. Fern will be in conversation with Zoe Venditozzi, discussing the different facets of Strong Female Character including growing up as a working-class Scottish woman, her comedy career, and her autism diagnosis. The Portobello Bookshop team are huge fans of Fern as we’re sure plenty of our customers are too, so don’t miss out on this opportunity!
About Strong Female Character:
If you’ve ever been on a night out where you got blackout drunk and have laughed the next day as your friends tell you all the stupid stuff you said, that’s what being autistic feels like for me: one long blackout night of drinking, except there’s no socially sanctioned excuse for your gaffes and no one is laughing.
A summary of my book: 1. I’m diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it. 2. My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc. 3. My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed. 4. Homelessness. 5. Stripping. 6. More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns. 7. I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc. 8. REDACTED as too spicy. 9. After everyone tells me I don’t look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax. 10. REDACTED as too embarrassing.
Fern Brady is a woman. She is also autistic. She was born in Scotland (no, not Glasgow). She has no presets for being a ‘good woman’ – she never hated her body or indulged in messy millennial shame. She now lives out of wedlock in London. She has zero children. Fern’s caustic wit, exceptional writing and electric stagecraft has made her one of the UK’s hottest comedy stars. As seen on Live from the BBC, Live from the Comedy Store, The Russell Howard Hour, and Live at the Apollo. She’s had viral success with her BBC Life Lessons and supported Frankie Boyle and Katherine Ryan on tour. She was recently a contestant on Taskmaster on Channel 4.
Zoe Venditozzi lives in Scotland where she writes, teaches and is the co-campaigner for Witches of Scotland. The campaign’s podcast is frequently at the top of the listening charts and has been downloaded over 100,000 times. Zoe’s first novel Anywhere’s Better Than Here won the popular award in the Guardian’s Not the Booker prize and her short fiction has been published in various journals. Zoe has just written a novel about madness and psychic phenomena and is now working on a collection of stories set in a village in the North East of Scotland.
