The Gift of a Radio

This is very, very good. It is not only a vivid portrait of Justin Webb's young life but, deftly, of those times as well. He has a light touch but writes with great sensitivity, insight, and wit. It is touchingly self-revelatory but never mawkish. The absurd snobberies of the class into which he was born and reared are brilliantly illuminated. The portrait of his mother is painful and touching, tender and anguished. He is never self-pitying or self-regarding but there is much raw pain as well as candour in what he writes. A very fine memoir indeed.

Jonathan Dimbleby

On radio and television, Justin Webb comes across as one of this country's most relaxed and affable broadcasters. This moving and frank memoir tells a different story of a childhood defined by loneliness, the absence of a father and the grim experience of a Quaker boarding school. It is also one of the most perceptive accounts of Britain in the 1970s when the country was at its most stagnant and grey. But it is also a story of hope and how the gift of a radio changed the life of an unhappy little boy and put him on the road to becoming one of Britain's most trusted journalists.

Misha Glenny, author of McMafia

Justin is a great broadcaster because he sounds like a real human being. This hugely entertaining book helps explain why.

John Humphrys

I was gripped. This perfectly captures the unique in-betweenness of the 1970s. Justin Webb is both generous and critical, measured yet fierce in this account of an extraordinary childhood.

Richard Beard, author of Sad Little Men and The Day That Went Missing

I thoroughly enjoyed Justin Webb's bonkers childhood amidst apparition fathers and Crimplene jackets. He captures the middle class of the age with a tenacity only possible in one of its victims.

Jeremy Paxman

One to watch: This compelling memoir of his challenging childhood, which takes in themes of mental health, masculinity, grief and what privilege does (and doesn't) look like, is a revelation.

Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller

A tough start. A brilliant career. A delightful memoir.

Jenni Murray

A beautiful account of the universal love affair between mothers and sons. Justin Webb's acute observation of his eccentric, emotionally-repressed mum is full of love and generosity and will give hope to parents' everywhere.

Justine Roberts, Founder and CEO, Mumsnet

A brave and emotional book

Simon Garfield, author of The Age of Innocence

Justin Webb's memoir is unique: for its style, acute observation, and the combination of being unflinching and written with love.

Mishal Husain

A crisp, unself-pitying memoir of a 'trainwreck' youth ... I've always likes Webb on the radio. But I like him much more after reading this book. He offers precisely the kind of brisk honesty and considered analysis he expects from his interviewees. Our politicians should all read it, and step up their game.

Helen Brown, The Telegraph

[Justin Webb's] affability and easy manner seems even more remarkable after reading [his] memoir, The Gift Of A Radio. The subtitle is My Childhood And Other Train Wrecks, which is apt: the experiences of his formative years would have driven most children completely off the rails

Daily Mail

A gripping memoir ... fascinating and hugely entertaining. It's extremely thoughtful and shockingly honest.

Christina Patterson, Sunday Times

Justin Webb's vivid childhood memoir reads like a collection of scenes from cherished sitcoms of his youth. A life spent under the spell of eccentric "ineffably snobbish" mother Gloria and "stark staring mad" stepfather Charles is part Keeping Up Appearances and part Reggie Perrin. Webb writes about it all with wit and fondness but beneath the surface lurks a great deal of heartbreak ... Webb has always seemed unflappable on the airwaves. These entertaining soul-searching memoirs help to explain his ability to keep calm and carry on.

Allan Hunter, Daily Express

Moving, darkly hilarious ... In his mother, Gloria Crocombe, Webb records a great tragicomic character.

Melanie Reid, The Times

This is not a misery memoir, but some painful introspection feeds [Justin Webb's] frank and lightly handled accounts of damage. It makes for engrossing reading.

Norma Clarke, TLS

He may have one of the bestknown voices in Britain as the longest-serving presenter of Radio 4's Today programme, but it turns out he is a wonderful writer, too. This superb memoir stops just as Webb joins the BBC and is an immaculate portrait of a certain type of middle-class upbringing in the 1970s ... To those of us of, um, a certain age, one of the joys of this warm, generous book (significantly, dedicated to his stepfather as well as his mother) is the detail of life in that extraordinary decade - nipping off with a packet of Players No6, cider at 70p a gallon, listening to Fire by Arthur Brown or watching Tomorrow's World where 'chaps in ill-fitting suits tried to explain new-fangled devices called computers'. A pleasure to read.

Roger Alton, Daily Mail

One of my books of the year: beautifully written.

Alan Johnson, New Statesman

One of the best biographies of the year: a surprisingly upbeat and witty 'misery memoir'.

Robbie Millen, The Times