5/26/2026
This disclaimer is: I’m giving Dear Fatty one star on Library Thing based on the audacity of someone who had a good voice, that had an interesting voice as Dawn French does and refused to read it. No Spoilers in this Review.
I am a demanding member of the public. If I’m listening to a celebrity autobiography and that celebrity is an actor and I know very well they have the ability to read their own biography and then they instead choose to have somebody else read it. I feel like they just don’t care enough. Why should I bother to read this book or buy it when they couldn’t be bothered to read it?
Maybe they even wrote it with a ghost writer? What I think Dawn French did was either wrote or dictated a bunch of notes and gave this to a ghost writer who then wrote the book. I don’t even know if Dawn French even read this book herself once. I’m not the only one who believes this book was written by a ghostwriter. I noticed in the reviews on Library Thing other people feel the same way.
As for the explanation at the beginning of the book is that it was too traumatic for Dawn French to read, I think she should get over that because if you are posting something for the whole world to read you really ought to be comfortable with it.
The book Dear Fatty is read by a voice actor named Liza Tarbuck. Unfortunately since I am an American the very voices that British people feel sound best sound extremely painful to me. I prefer a British accent that is genuine and unique and does not sound anything like the artificial Mid-Atlantic accent which I despise.
Therefore I did not actually listen to this book although I am reviewing it. I’m probably never going to listen to it unless I get really bored. Dear Fatty is available for listening for free on Spotify if you have a regular premium account. I do not wish to waste my Spotify hours listening to a phony sounding stuck up accent. However I would like to stress that I feel “Fatty” is an inappropriate and hurtful name.
I had to question myself. Why did did I even want to read this book in the first place? The reason is is because it’s supposed to be based on a letter to Jennifer Saunders who Dawn French refers to as “Fatty” but this is not clear unless you know the inside information about these two actresses.
I never enjoyed the show French and Saunders. The Vicar of Dibley starring Dawn French is a terrible show because it mocks religion, but also because it just isn’t funny. It’s like a modern day version of Saturday Night Live which as we all know is the height of unfunny comedy using bad writers and jokes that don’t land. Although historically Saturday Night Live with John Belushi was a fantastic program, but so much has changed since then.
Instead of watching The Vicar of Dibley I recommend that you watch a show called The Queen of Oz starring Catherine Tate. The concept is similar. An overweight middle-aged woman is appointed to a position that she is unfit for and hilarity ensues.
Jennifer Saunders reads her own autobiography in a charming way which I will probably review next.
6/3/2026
This is an updated revision to my book review. After listening to the Jennifer Saunders book “My Life in Bonkers”. I decided I would simply have to listen to at least some of the Dawn French book.
The book reviews in my blog are not necessarily meant to be straightforward book reviews which could be found on any social media site such as Good Reads. I mean for this book review to being known for a stylistic interpretation of my feelings towards the author and the material.
So, I began with great trepidation (for fear of wasting my Spotify credits) to scan through the Dear Fatty book on my Spotify account. The first letters all began Dear Dad. I skipped those because I could not see any point in learning anything about Dawn French’s father since I didn’t know anything about Dawn French. My goal was to listen to at least one of the letters that she wrote to Jennifer Saunders. After a great amount of skipping, I finally came to track 30, a letter to Jennifer Saunders.
The letter involves a bizarre incident in which they were caught shoplifting although they were innocent. I found it to be entertaining which surprised me considering I don’t like any of Dawn French’s comedy. I went to the next letter which was to her High School boyfriend, and I also found that to be interesting and well written.
The biggest negative in the book “Dear Fatty” is Dawn French’s failure to actually read these letters herself because as I am familiar with her voice. I know she would have been able to read them because she is an actress after all. Furthermore, I would have preferred a straightforward biography where she started it by perhaps telling a little bit about her childhood and addressing the reader instead of addressing other people in letters.
I don’t know why she chose this route. It reminded me of Salman Rushdie who wrote his entire biography in third person. Rushdie explained great self-consciousness in writing about himself caused him to behave this way. I assume that Dawn French had a similar mental block or perhaps a shyness when writing a straightforward biography about herself.
I would like to add a brief review for the Jennifer Saunders book “My Life in Bonkers”. Jennifer Saunders grew up a tomboy who liked to play with animals and pets. She even had her own pony. The Jennifer Saunders biography is also written in a somewhat unconventional style. The book is a little bit like listening to a comedy routine.
I became very quickly aware of that Jennifer Saunders is nothing like the character that she portrays on the show Absolutely Fabulous. She’s not vain about the way she looks she’s not interested in fashion and high glamor . She’s interested in comedy and willing to do self-deprecating comedy which I certainly do admire. I would recommend both these books as companion pieces to each other so you can get a sense of these two British comic actresses.
Macy Makes Magic 