My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety

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MARTIN: It must have been a heavy thing to carry around in childhood, that kind of existential worry. I loved him so much (when writing about her baby boy) I thought I might pop. I missed him when he was asleep and waited impatiently for him to wake. I kissed him so often I worried he might erode From worrying about the monsters under her bed as a child (Were they comfy enough?) to embracing womanhood (One way of knowing you have crossed from girlhood to womanhood is that men stop furtively masturbating at you from bushes and start shouting things at you from cars) to becoming a mother (Birth is a beautiful thing, if your idea of beauty is a tractor pulling a combine harvester out of your vagina), Georgia Pritchett’s memoir takes us through a life lived anxiously. Filled with warmth and humour, insight and honesty, it is a brilliant meditation on how to live with worry. British comedy writer Pritchett debuts with a collection of zippy and poignant anecdotes that describe living at the crossroads of imagination and anxiety...The delivery's delightful and as finely tuned as poetry or a tight stand-up routine. Her torment, as well as her joys, are readers' gain." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

What a talent, what a career, what a life, and what a treat to relive it all with this most down-to-earth of demigods. A natural born worrywart, Georgia’s life has been defined by her quirky anxiety. During childhood, she was agitated about the monsters under her bed (Were they comfy enough?). Going into labor, she fretted about making a fuss (“Sorry to interrupt, but the baby is coming out of my body,” I said politely). Winning a prestigious award, she agonized over receiving free gifts after the ceremony (It was an excruciating experience. Mortifying).

My Mess Is a Bit of a Life

In a chapter titled ‘Hashtag’, she writes about a job she had, aged 25, working with a 60-year old “comedy hero” who each night would grab her in the lift and force himself upon her. When she confided in a female producer on the show, “she very pointedly turned and looked the other way… the perfect metaphor for what the whole industry did for decades.” Based on her memoirs My Mess is a Bit of a Life , Georgia's in-conversation with J. A. Mensah has everything you could want - hamsters, one-legged action men, the Queen, budgies, questionable fashion choices, Robertson’s Giant Limb, the word ‘vagina’ and Jimmy Osmond.

My Mess is a bit of a Life adventures in anxiety by Georgia Pritchett is an absolute HOOT!!! The written word hasn’t made me laugh out loud like this for ages – and you all know how funny words can be. A truly funny passage can be read, read again and re-read and one can be guaranteed to throw up a guffaw each time. It really gets the good hormones pulsing. She agrees that there has been progress in recent years. “But then they confused strong women for psychopaths. So suddenly, we had Dr Foster and lots of murderous women. I just want to say, you can be a strong woman and not be a psychopath… I’ve barely killed anyone!” Georgia Pritchett’s career took off as her home life took a challenging turn (Photo: Faber)Spears’ vulnerability shines through as she describes her painful journey from vulnerable girl to empowered woman. PRITCHETT: Yeah, it's strange 'cause obviously my whole career writing scripts - has been putting words in other people's mouths. I've suddenly written this very personal, direct thing, and now it's out in the world. And in many ways that's horrifying. And people like you keep asking me to talk about my feelings. MARTIN: So this book project began with a visit to your therapist. How do you feel about those anxieties these days? Georgia has always had some anxiousness, even from a young age, some worries naturally more daunting than others. She has suffered some serious loss and faced several challenges but brings humor to sharing many of her experiences. In particular, the stories she shares about her young sons are very funny and also touching.