Cack-Handed: A Memoir

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Although a reference to her left-handedness, it also suggests a clumsy ineptitude – but what actually comes through, especially when it comes to her comedy years, is ambition; a determination - sometimes a pig-headed one - to succeed, especially when she was told ‘no’.

It was good reading it, plus my mother and her mother were good friends; it took me back to my own Nigerian-British upbringing, and I chuckled inwardly with some of her descriptions growing up, because my mother was identical to Gina's mother.She’s also very clear on the institutional racism handed out by employers, the police and the British entertainment industry, coming over as fair and fairly angry and giving a lot of extra value to the book. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. She describes the prejudice she faced growing up in 1980s England, discrimination that came from whites and other Blacks alike, and even within her own household with a step-father who treated her like Cinderella. From birth, Gina carried a similar birthmark—a sign that she was her grandmother’s chosen heir, and would fulfill Patience’s dreams. It's part stand-up routine but also a sober commentary for up and comers on the structural racism and sexism of the world in general and in particular as developed here, in the entertainment world--esp.

One last tiny little niggle though, I dislike being referred to as "ignorant" or having lived under a "Jupiter sized rock" because I've not seen Black Panther (I've not seen any of the Marvel universe films).I’ve encountered quite a lot of information on the divisions between African and Caribbean-origin people in the UK recently but this one really set out theories as to why each set of people has this opinion of the other.

A memoir written as a selection of short chapters connected to her mother's sayings, which is a clever structure.Not believing her life was difficult enough, she later left engineering to become a stand-up comic, appearing on numerous television shows and becoming one of the top comedians in the UK, before giving it all up to move to the US, a dream she’d had since she was six years old, watching American kids on television, riding cool bicycles, and solving crimes. Despite the difficulties, Gina was very resourceful and enterprising and managed to get small crumbs of freedom wherever she could, for example by arranging to go on a trip to France as an A-Level student without her mother knowing she would be unaccompanied. This book also ends with her about to make the move to the American comedy market, but since she's been active over here in the US for a bit - Netflix special, Bob Hearts Abishola, etc - now it felt strange to not have any reflections on that in a book coming out now in 2021; it seems like this book was ready for publication a couple years ago.