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HELEN LEDERER

Author

writing is like stand-up comedy… but with clapping

Helen
Helen with Memoir

Helen’s new memoir Not That I’m Bitter is available to order at Amazon and Waterstones - best to hurry! Given the nature of the content - it may sell out! Not That I’m Bitter is a powerful, frank and characteristically funny memoir revealing how choppy the waters could be - even in those ground-breaking, anti-Thatcher, Tory-bashing days, there was only room at top for so many women. For the rest, it was as much a struggle to be seen and heard in the world of comedy as in any boardroom or workplace, and just as difficult to avoid the predators. There’s something in Helen Lederer’s life-story that everyone can relate to. She pulls no punches, but every blow is wrapped in a laugh of recognition. Brilliantly written, revealing, and moving. Not That I’m Bitter is sweet, sour, and unforgettable. Read more in The Guardian.
 
Her first comedy Novel ‘LOSING IT’ published by Pan Macmillan was nominated for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize in 2015. Audio version available to download on Amazon.

 

Other published books include ‘COPING with HELEN LEDERER’ (Angus and Robertson), ‘SINGLE MINDING’ (Hodder and Stoughton), 'FINGER FOOD' (Quick Reads), as well as short stories in ‘GIRLS NIGHT OUT’ and ‘GIRLS NIGHT IN’ (Harper Collins).

Star swirl

BOOKS

Not That I'm Bitter

Not That I'm Bitter

Order yours now - sweet, sour, laugh out loud, and addictive.

Losing It

Losing It

From ‘the funniest woman in England’ Dawn French Millie is agony aunt for ‘The Good Woman Magazine’. In debt, divorced and desperate, she’s about to lose her house. Worse, she has no money, a best friend with a better sex life than her, a daughter in Papua New Guinea and too much weight in places she really doesn’t want. When she’s asked to be front woman for a new diet pill, Millie naively believes that all her troubles will be solved.

Stories To Make You Smile

Stories To Make You Smile

A seriously entertaining collection of feelgood stories guaranteed to put the smile back on your face written especially by ten bestselling novelists. From a hilarious race against time to a moment of unexpected eavesdropping, from righting wrongs in rural India to finding joy in unlikely places, these stories are all rich in wit and humour, guaranteed to lift your spirits and warm your heart.

This Is How We Come Back Stronger: Feminist Writers On Turning Crisis Into Change

This Is How We Come Back Stronger: Feminist Writers On Turning Crisis Into Change

Feminist writers come together to respond to the crisis of 2020 in this unique and essential collection of essays, interviews, and fiction. Spring, 2020. When everything changed. As life around the world retreated behind closed doors, gender inequalities and systemic racism were brought into new and shocking prominence. Women and non-binary people of all backgrounds and experiences were disproportionately affected by the crisis. Essential debate and action was, for a time, silenced.

Finger Food

Finger Food

A Comedy of Ambition, Dreams, Treachery and Daytime Television £1.99 paperback Bella le Pard's career as a TV presenter is on hold. To fill her days, she sits in a coffee shop and obsesses about a wedding dress in the neighbouring shop. Then her luck changes when she gets the call from her old boss at Flair for Living TV to present a pilot for a new food and chat show. But will this revive her TV career?

Single Minding: Lederer on Lone Parenting

Single Minding: Lederer on Lone Parenting

Hodder and Stoughton A humorous guide in which TV comedian Helen Lederer offers advice and practical tips on how to survive the pitfalls and trials of being a single parent.

Girl's Night In

Girl's Night In

Jessica Adams £1.99 paperback An unparalleled collection of stories especially written by today’s best young female writers, to be published in aid of War Child, the charity dedicated to alleviating the suffering of children affected by war. Top authors Jessica Adams, Fiona Walker and Chris Manby have asked some of today’s bestselling young women writers and me (I was young then) to contribute stories to an anthology to be published in aid of War Child.

PRESS ARTICLES

Best Magazine

Best Magazine

My advice on aging? Crack on and don’t forget face cream!

YOU Magazine

YOU Magazine

‘A martini makes me feel like James Bond’

Mirror Regional Syndication

Mirror Regional Syndication

I was an ambitious, funny female ... which wasn’t seen as a comfortable mix in the Eighties

Metro

Metro

Half of the panto came round for a party - including Steve Guttenberg

Women's Weekly

Women's Weekly

I’ve found the adult way to impress: step counting

Mirror - Article

Mirror - Article

Helen Lederer says young women today 'would be aghast' at sexism in TV in 80s and 90s

Perspective Magazine

Perspective Magazine

Humour remains women’s best weapon in gaining literary gender parity

i News - Column

i News - Column

Reading a funny book can be like a spiritual high

Women & Home

Women & Home

They let me KEEP THE DRESS

Women's Weekly - Column

Women's Weekly - Column

Is it wrong to festoon a fence with fake foliage?

i News - Column

i News - Column

What a joy to return to events – I was so excited I considered inviting Bill Bailey on a caravan holiday

The Spectator

The Spectator

Why you should be careful what you pray for

The Spectator

The Spectator

Diary

i News - Column

i News - Column

i (newspaper)

i (newspaper)

The Telegraph - Life and Times

The Telegraph - Life and Times

Woman's Weekly - Column

Woman's Weekly - Column

I decided to stop being a social flake and set up a book club in my own home.

The Times Literary Supplement

The Times Literary Supplement

Woman's Weekly - Column

Woman's Weekly - Column

The reason I knew time had flown was because my trellises had blown away.

The Spectator

The Spectator

Diary

Sunday Telegraph

Sunday Telegraph

Woman's Weekly - Column

Woman's Weekly - Column

My need to please people all started with a chocolate biscuit...

My Weekly - Ask Helen

My Weekly - Ask Helen

Helen has been My Weekly's Agony Aunt for many years.

Mail on Sunday

Mail on Sunday

A bit of bouncing on the beds … purely in the name of important research.

Woman's Own

Woman's Own

My Weekly Summer Special

My Weekly Summer Special

I adore writing short stories. – a world of romance, pretty hair and I hope happy endings

TRAVEL WRITING

The Telegraph

The Telegraph

Read about Helen's secret weapon for beating the lockdown blues

The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail

The art of Athens

The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail

Freedom & beauty in the Maldives

The Mail on Sunday

The Mail on Sunday

A Taste of Luxury. Helen Lederer and her husband, Chris, sample the delights of the Cora Pearl Suite at London’s Grosvenor Hotel.

The Mail on Sunday

The Mail on Sunday

The Bounty Island Girl. Helen Lederer pampers herself in the Maldives where they have discovered some exotic uses for the coconut…

The Mail on Sunday

The Mail on Sunday

Peaceful Talks at a Health Summit. Helen Lederer wanted to restore body and soul…so she took to the Troodos mountains in Cyprus

The Mail on Sunday

The Mail on Sunday

Healthy Mix of Sun and Sin on Pleasure Island. Some funny goings-on amid the sensual landscape of St Lucia

The Mail on Sunday

The Mail on Sunday

Hip and Thai Diet. Helen Lederer is revived by a spa in the East

The Independent on Sunday

The Independent on Sunday

It’s Snowtime. Helen Lederer wanted snowflakes, plural. She wanted real snow, crunchy snow, she wanted White Christmas. She went to Lapland.

The Independent on Sunday

The Independent on Sunday

Cornish Cream. A holiday in Britain. With the family. And friends. Sounds like hell? Helen Lederer would do it all over again. Eat your heart out, Tony Blair.

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