Absolutely Fabulous star Helen Lederer and Have I Got News For You writer Sara Gibbs on the importance of funny books, as well as their careers on page, stage and screen.

Two hilarious writers for the page, stage and screen join us to discuss their careers and the importance of funny books.

Absolutely Fabulous star Helen Lederer follows her novel Losing It with memoir Not That I’m Bitter, tracing her journey from child of a Jewish-Czech wartime refugee to, in the words of Dawn French, ‘the third funniest woman in the world’. It’s the reverse path for Have I Got News For You writer Sara Gibbs; in the wake of her acclaimed memoir Drama Queen comes her debut novel Eight Bright Lights, a Hanukkah-focused romcom. And as founders of the Comedy Women in Print Prize and The First Laugh Comedy Writing Competition respectively, we know they both take humour seriously! In conversation with comedian and writer Chris Neill.

Buy a copy of Not That I’m Bitter by Helen Lederer and buy a copy of Eight Bright Lights by Sara Gibbs.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval.

About the speakers:

Helen Lederer is a writer, actress, comedian, and presenter. Apart from TV, stage, and radio, she’s best known as Catriona, the dippy journalist in the TV series Absolutely Fabulous – although, her stay in the Big Brother house caused a different kind of notoriety. Her novel, Losing It, was nominated for the PG Wodehouse comedy literary prize. In 2019, Helen set up the Comedy Women in Print Prize (CWIP), to celebrate witty women writers. She lives in London.

Sara Gibbs is a UK-based comedy writer, graduate of the National Film and Television School’s Writing & Producing Comedy course and prolific tweeter. Her credits include Dead Ringers, The News Quiz, The Daily Mash, CollegeHumor, The Now Show, The Mash Report and Have I Got News for You. She is co-founder of satirical online women’s magazine, Succubus, and the founder of The First Laugh Comedy Writing Competition for new writers. Her memoir, Drama Queen, was published in 2021.

Chris Neill is a Writers Guild award-nominated (losing) writer and comedian who hates having to pretend to be someone else writing about him. His work includes four BBC Radio 4 series (Woof and Raging Enigma) and a collection of essays What Is This Thing Called, Love? published by WF Howes as an audiobook.

‘Blissfully well written, Neill may be first and foremost a comedian, but his observations are as acute as any novelist’s. Sweet, sharp and very funny.’ The Times