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Braver Than Britain, Occasionally by Spadge Whittaker (view source)
Revision as of 11:55, 1 December 2015
, 11:55, 1 December 2015no edit summary
Which of those frighten you? I'm immune to them all, except for heights and spiders. But when I say except for heights and spiders, I mean except for HEIGHTS and SPIDERS. Spadge's biggest fears among these are flying, spiders and public speaking. We could look at this in two ways: firstly, I'm braver than Spadge because I am frightened by fewer things; secondly, Spadge is braver than me because she is prepared to face her fears and the chances of me touching a SPIDER or braving HEIGHTS sit at a big fat zero.
Over the course of ten chapters, Spadge lets a tarantula crawl up her arm, abseils down Lincoln Cathedral , gets her nipples pierced and allows herself to be imprisoned in a car boot for hours on end, among many other feats of courage, all accompanied by photographic evidence. I won't lie: I skimmed the SPIDER chapter. Even photos of SPIDERS are enough to send me running for the hills.
I have to hand it to Spadge. The resulting book is funny and silly and brave, and above all ''joyous''. We all know that facing our fears is generally a good thing, even if we don't always do it, but who knew that facing other people's fears would be so illuminating? I loved this journey through the preoccupations of my fellow Brits and I loved the way Spadge approached it all with a good heart and typically British self-deprecation. Really, I loved everything about it. EXCEPT FOR THE SPIDERS.