Strong Female Character

Critics Review

• Of course it’s funny – it’s Fern Brady – but this book is also deeply moving and eye-opening

  ADAM KAY

• It made me laugh out loud and broke my heart and made me weep…I hope absolutely everyone reads this, and it makes them kinder and more curious about the way we all live

  DAISY BUCHANAN

• Glorious. Frank but nuanced, a memoir that doesn’t sacrifice voice or self-awareness. And it has brilliant things to say about being autistic and being funny

  ELLE MCNICOLL

• Fern is a brilliant, beautiful writer with a unique voice and even more unique story. Astute, honest and very, very funny.

  LOU SANDERS

• So funny and brilliant

  HOLLY SMALE

• An absolute riot. I’m literally going to read it again once I’ve finished, and I’m a miserable bastard…it’s a belter

  FRANKIE BOYLE

• Fern Brady’s book is alive in your hands. Brave doesn’t cover it and I’m not sure what will. Fizzing with intelligence, it will hit you in the heart, lungs and liver. You’ll laugh, cry, be still and if you’re not autistic – by god you’ll learn. If you are autistic you’ll be seen, heard, held, rocked and loved here. A set text for all of us in 2023

  DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE

• Strong Female Character is a testament to the importance of self-knowledge. Fern Brady is a natural and engaging writer, weaving bleak episodes with moments of pure comedy as she re-appraises crucial moments in her life through the lens of her autism diagnosis. Brutal honesty and a talent for storytelling combine to make an insightful memoir that’s not only very funny, but will no doubt provide invaluable moments of recognition for many readers.

  RACHAEL HEALY, The Guardian

• Witty, dry, and gimlet-eyed, Strong Female Character is a necessary corrective. Brady offers a compelling, messy, highly resonant portrait of what masked Autism feels like

  Devon Price, author of Unmasking Autism

• This Bathgate girl has more jaw-dropping tales to share than your average comedian-cum-author could hope to harvest in a lifetime. Perhaps more of us ought to grapple with our own mortality if it births something so bold as Strong Female Character.

  The List

• Strong Female Character will reassure fellow autistic folk that they are not alone

  Chortle

• Shocking and incredibly moving – and it will make you laugh at subjects that you didn’t think you possibly could

  Scotland on Sunday

• A brutal, funny and heartbreaking memoir. The pace is brisk and her deadpan humour makes the darkest material hilariously funny.

  The Times

• Brilliant!

  HR Magazine

• This very personal account of bullying, stripping, homelessness and stand-up is shocking and incredibly moving – and will make you laugh at subjects that you didn’t realise could be funny.

  i Paper

• [Brady] brings unsparing wit to a memoir that calls out the bulls–t in every culture she’s experienced.

  The Telegraph

• Strong Female Character is a clear-eyed, deeply sane account of an at times tumultuous life; a life shaped by class and gender, but mostly, it’s now clear to her, by her autism.

  The Herald