How to be Champion

I have been a Sarah Millican fan for a few years now, I love her straight talking and no-nonsense approach and her down to earth style. As the new year rolled around I needed a book to kick off the new year and get me through those initial days after all the festivities stop and reality sets in with a bump. I could think of no more perfect book than How To Be Champion by Sarah Millican.

This book is a really interesting one, it's part autobiography and advice guide to life from Sarah Millican herself. It's a joy to read. Instead of giving us a life account from birth to the present day she dedicates chapters to different topics such as Things She Learned From Her Father, Her Divorce, The Bafta's Article. Through each chapter, she recounts her own life experiences in a style only Sarah can deliver and then each chapter is capped off by her own little slice of advice for us the reader in relation to the subject matter of that chapter.

The things I learned about Sarah from reading this book were immeasurable, she has clearly got a strong family background with parents who were devoted to her. She was brought up with a strong work ethic and the support to follow her dreams. Yes, she had an unsuccessful marriage that left her reeling but she has moved on and she is stronger for it and now happily married to her comedian husband and living the country life with her dogs and cats.

This book was perfect for the New Year doldrums and had some really great laugh out loud moments that come through loud and clear in Sarah's Northern accent. Her view of life is really healthy, she is aware of her faults and open about her insecurities and she makes a wonderful narrator and her stories about her time working in the Job Centre and WH Smiths in her time before she started following her Comedy career are wonderful and show her as a hard working girl who has always understood the need to work hard and be nice to people.

If you want a book to drive you to change your life then maybe Sarah's isn't for you but for me it reinforced my own values and helped me to feel a little more secure in my own view of my self. She is a Champion for the ordinary woman in all of us. Those of us who have bad days where we know we've not always got on the most co-ordinated outfits but we deal with it, when we have cooking disasters and she helps us to find the strength to laugh at ourselves a little more, some great advice on staying in Travel Lodges when we are away on a work trip and finally to accept help when we need it.

A really strong 5 star book for me.