A couple of Sundays before, we went to see Robin Ince and Pierre Novellie at the final day of the Bradford Literature Festival. They’re both stand-up comedians, who, as adults, have received ADHD (Ince) and Autism (Novellie) diagnoses, and written books about them. The event, entitled Thinking Differently and Laughing Loudly, had Ince and Novellie talk about their experiences both pre- and post-diagnosis, and their books.
The Bradford Literature Festival has been going for a few years now, and – full disclosure – my employer, the University of Bradford, has been one its major funders from day one. Indeed, this event took place in the university’s Great Hall, which, combined with an Open Day the day before, meant I spent quite a bit of my weekend at work in some capacity. Ashamedly, this was the first event I had attended, although I put this mainly down to issues arranging childcare in previous years. This event was in the late afternoon, and so we dragged our nine-year-old along along with their iPad and headphones.
The following paragraphs include sponsored links to Amazon for the books mentioned.
Robin Ince – Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal
I’ve seen Robin Ince a few times before. These include a couple of ‘Uncaged Monkeys’ events in 2011, which was sort-of a live show for nerds as a spin-off of the Infinite Monkey Cage show that he co-hosts with Professor Brian Cox on BBC Radio 4. We also saw his ‘Bad Book Club’ show in Hebden Bridge, again in 2011, and we’ve seen him at a couple of shows in Leeds and in Huddersfield. Finding out that Ince has ADHD was not much of a surprise – his comedy sets would often go off and tangents and he would frequently go over time.
Robin Ince has written quite a few books now, and I’ve read Bad Book Club (related to the aforementioned show), I’m A Comedian And So Are You (one of my books of the year for 2019) and The Importance of Being Interested. His latest is Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal, published in May, and this was the book he was here to promote. I haven’t read it yet, but we picked up a signed copy and I also have the audiobook to accompany us on our upcoming holiday. We also had a couple of Robin’s other books signed, including Bibilomaniac, which I haven’t yet read.
Pierre Novellie – Why Can’t I Just Enjoy Things
I haven’t seen Pierre Novellie before, but I follow him on social media as he’s popped up on a few podcasts that I listen to. Pierre was born in South Africa, moved to the Isle of Man in childhood and then went to Cambridge for university. He was diagnosed as being autistic in his thirties, and in the discussions on stage, he said he’d realised that autistic observations made up much of his comedy even before he was aware.
His book is called Why Can’t I Just Enjoy Things? and, if I remember correctly, Novellie self-published it before it was picked up by a publisher and released in paperback in May. I picked up the Kindle edition when it was on offer, and had started reading it on the plane on the way back from Greece. It’s very good; it’s funny, but it also makes you think. I’ve not finished it yet – probably a combination of being busy and my undiagnosed ADHD – but we picked up the paperback to have that signed as well. I mean, I could have asked Novellie to sign the iPad that I’m reading it on, but I’m looking at replacing it later this year.
As for the Bradford Literature Festival, it’ll be back next year. It’s a really good festival, with a huge range of activities and a real commitment to diversity.
