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Cheer Up Love

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What to expect

'DEEPLY HONEST, SURPRISINGLY HILARIOUS AND UPLIFTING' The Pool
'HEART-WARMING: UNMISSABLE' Damian Barr, Metro

Susan Calman is a well-known comedian and writer who has appeared on countless radio and television programmes from The News Quiz and Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4, presented Armchair Detectives and Secret Scotland, hosts the podcast Mrs Brightside and stole the nation's hearts in STRICTLY COME DANCING 2017. Her solo stand up show, Susan Calman is Convicted, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and dealt with subjects like the death penalty, appearance and depression.

It was the overwhelming and positive reaction to the show she wrote about mental health that made Susan want to write a more detailed account of surviving depression when you're the world's most negative and anxious person.
The Crab of Hate is the personification of Calman's depression and her version of the notorious Black Dog. A constant companion all her life, the Crab has provided her with the best, and very worst of times. This is a very personal and affecting memoir of how, after many years and with a lot of help and talking, Susan has embraced her dark side and realised that she can be the most joyous sad person you'll ever meet.

CHEER UP LOVE IS FUNNY, POIGNANT AND (HOPEFULLY) INFORMATIVE.
IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO TALK AND TO REALISE YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

*If you loved Cheer Up Love, try Sunny Side Up, Susan's Calmanifesto of Happiness*
(P)2016 John Murray Press

Critics Review

Susan Calman never fails to make me hoot with laughter
Sarah Millican
Fantastic, funny, moving... A perceptive look at depression - with added laughs'
Viv Groskop
The forthcoming, heartbreaking and heart-warming memoir from the Radio 4 favourite... Avoiding all the usual 'tears of a clown' clichés, she tackles homophobia, self-harm and finding your voice. Unmissable
Damian Barr, Metro
Deeply personal and painfully honest but funny
The Times Scotland
Calman's account of depression, though deeply honest, is surprisingly hilarious and uplifting
Hannah Varrell, The Pool
There are so many depressing books about being funny, so it's refreshing to ready a funny one about about being depressed. I have never laughed quite so heartily at someone else's genuine distress - which I hope is her intention
Miles Jupp
A really important message, but hilarious at the same time
BBC The One Show
Talked with engaging candour and humour about her own struggle to keep it at bay
Scotsman (Edinburgh Book Festival coverage)
A breezily accessible account
Metro
Wonderfully funny
BBC Woman's Hour
Candid and often laugh-out-loud-funny... There's no sense that Cheer Up Love is a deliberate act of catharsis or an attempt to hasten any kind of healing process. Instead Calman presents herself as a woman who has already come to terms with who she is
Sunday Herald
A compelling memoir... engaging insight... Susan's outstanding sense of humour shines through to create an uplifting survival handbook
The Lady
This is a book that everyone should read, and not only because it makes a serious issue both engaging and instructive... a vital account of mental ill-health
The National
A wonderful and honest book. I thoroughly endorse this product
Emma Kennedy
This is a book that, like a female stereotype, multitasks. For those who suffer from bouts of depression and mental illness it provides solace, understanding and advice. For those living with or close to people suffering from depression, it gives you insight into why some of your well meant but unhelpful or even damaging suggestions seem to fall on deaf ears. If you picked it up purely to find out what makes Susan Calman tick, where she comes from and incidents that shaped the comedian and writer here today, there's that too!
Kate Stone, Funny Women
More use than a standard self-help book
National
Her story is a pleasure to read... Calman's warmth and humour shines through
AND Guide
***PRAISE FOR SUSAN CALMAN***
Glasgow-born comic Calman is a dead-cert-one-to-watch; she's got an infectious bubbly manner but a caustic edge too, and both can yield comedy gold
Guardian
Feisty Scot Calman is one of the best female comics to ever come out of the land of bagpipes and haggis. She'll make you chuckle your pants off
Time Out
Calman fizzed manic energy, alternating between confessional tales and playing with facts she teased out of the audience
Edinburgh Evening News
surely prove as useful for those in contact with depressives as it is for sufferers... the authenticity of her stories resonates more than any more formal study of depression ever could... darkly funny.
Chortle

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