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

Susan Calman is a much-loved comedian and writer who has appeared on countless radio and television programmes from The News Quiz and Just a Minute to Armchair Detectives and Secret Scotland. She’s hosted the podcast Mrs Brightside and stole the nation’s hearts in Strictly Come Dancing. Her breakout solo stand up show, Susan Calman is Convicted, 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*

What's Inside

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Reviews

Guardian
***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
Time Out
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
Damian Barr, Metro
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
Sarah Millican
Susan Calman never fails to make me hoot with laughter
Miles Jupp
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
Kate Stone, Funny Women
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!
The National
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
Sunday Herald
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
BBC The One Show
A really important message, but hilarious at the same time
BBC Woman's Hour
Wonderfully funny
Emma Kennedy
A wonderful and honest book. I thoroughly endorse this product
Chortle
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.
The Lady
A compelling memoir... engaging insight... Susan's outstanding sense of humour shines through to create an uplifting survival handbook
AND Guide
Her story is a pleasure to read... Calman's warmth and humour shines through
Metro
A breezily accessible account
National
More use than a standard self-help book
The Times Scotland
Deeply personal and painfully honest but funny
Scotsman (Edinburgh Book Festival coverage)
Talked with engaging candour and humour about her own struggle to keep it at bay
Viv Groskop
Fantastic, funny, moving... A perceptive look at depression - with added laughs'
Hannah Varrell, The Pool
Calman's account of depression, though deeply honest, is surprisingly hilarious and uplifting
Edinburgh Evening News
Calman fizzed manic energy, alternating between confessional tales and playing with facts she teased out of the audience