Bob Mortimer will tell the story of his life in a memoir called And Away …
The book will document the comedian’s childhood in Middlesbrough to unexpected heart surgery in 2015, and the success he has found in recent years on BBC2’s Gone Fishing.
Born in 1959, Mortimer trained as a solicitor before a chance encounter in a pub in the 1980s with Jim Moir, a comedian who was already going by the stage name Vic Reeves.
That meeting set his life on a different track, as Mortimer found fame as part of the double act Vic and Bob with shows such as Shooting Stars, and Mortimer will recount the details of how it unfolded in the book, which will be published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster UK.
Mortimer said: “With over 60 years of tomfoolery and shenanigans under my belt, I thought it was time to write them all down and let the public make of them what they will.”
Holly Harris, publishing director at Simon & Schuster UK, said: “Bob’s book is brilliant, funny and profound, and all of us at S&S are thrilled to be publishing it.
“He’s a natural writer and we cannot wait for Bob to share And Away … with readers this autumn.”
And Away … will be published in September 2021, simultaneously in hardback, ebook and an audiobook narrated by the author.