Not one for biographies normally but really enjoyed reading the mix of London history and personal anecdotes from Sandi. some funny tales mixed with some that do make you stop and think. Sandi is one of few "celebrities" that i would love to have a cup of tea with or a spontaneous chat on a bus.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as it is as though Sandi is chatting personally to the reader, flowing with all the changes of subject that happens within everyday conversations. It is a wonderful mix of snippets from Sandi's life, observations of people in general together with informative history nuggets based on the route of the No 12 bus mainly based on the street names it passes where one doesn't need to be familiar with London to enjoy. It is funny but also thought provoking with some real emotional passages that the reader can recognise many thoughts and memories evoked by it. A fantastic and utter joy to read which makes me love Sandi even more.

I like Sandi Toksvig so expected to like her book. I loved it. She’s a genuinely funny lady and that comes across. She’s also incredibly knowledgeable and I learnt a lot from this book. I laughed out loud in many places. It’s not an autobiography, it’s Sandi just rambling on about her life, the number 12 bus, lots of interesting historical facts and some of her memoirs thrown in for good measure. Absolutely brilliant.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

I loved this book, it felt as though Sandi was talking directly to me, like a friendly conversation. She definitely writes as she talks. I’m not a lover of conventional autobiographies/biographies but loved the way this was written. Sandi takes us on a trip on the number 12 double decker bus route through London, making it interesting by adding snippets from her life and also her quest to find blue plaques to women of the area but finding very few. She made me think and also look for information on some of the people she talked about, especially the women painters. Interesting, informative, and for me just enough about her life to make it autobiographical. I loved it, am going to buy it and would thoroughly recommend it.

Thank you to netgalley and Little Brown for an advance copy of this book.

Loved this book by Sandi Toksvig. It is a very different kind of memoir; more a collection of reminiscences, linked by the journey of the number 12 bus. The narrative is just as though Sandi is talking to you and she often goes off at tangents. Although there is certain amount of name dropping it is not done in a boastful way and there are just as many anecdotes relating to ordinary people. Sandi comes across as warm and funny - everyone's favourite aunt.

Her journeys on the N0. 12 bus reveal not only the 'dramas, romances and personalities' of London but also those of Sandi Toksvig's own intriguing life. A story with a difference, written with humour and sharp insights, stop by stop, into the life and peoples of old and modern London.

I can not recommend this book more highly. An engaging, bright, sparky, insightful and often emotional (literal and figurative) journey which will have you laughing out loud and despairing in equal measures. Each chapter explores part of the route of the No12 bus with clever segues between historical fact, tales from Sandi’s life and observations about life, the universe and fellow bus passengers. While the bus journey is linear, the memoir components blend into the story in a seamless fashion which avoids a the chronological drudgery that can mark out a memoir.

With many thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Publishing for an ARC in consideration of an honest review.

This review will be added to other retail outlets post publication and is on goodreads.

I enjoyed parts of this book. I would have liked there to have been more about Sandi's life and slightly less about her bus route. I am a fan of her comedy and I would still recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Thank you to Little Brown for granting my wish! Reading this is like sitting on the No,12 bus with Sandi as she points out all the interesting history bits along the way, and then relating experiences from her life in between. And she's had a few. For me the most interesting thing is her fight for feminism and equality and the depth of abandonment and hurt she has felt in her life because she felt different in her early years and was treated badly. I can relate to this. I'm a similar age, and being autistic means I've always felt different and been badly treated because of it. The hurt at peoples unkindness runs deep and is difficult to forget. Her experience of asking a black girl on the bus to turn down her music and then being upset afterwards because she understood her reaction brought tears to my eyes. I understood why Sandi felt the way she did. It's fashionable for people to say they love 'different'. Unfortunately not many people actually mean it.

What a lovely book! I couldn't read it without hearing Ms Toksvig's voice in my head which was an added bonus.
As I don't live in London I thought a memoir based on her reflections and memories while travelling on the number 12 bus through the city might be a bit irritating but felt it worked really well.
I particularly enjoyed her anecdotes about the history of places she passed through, the way she shared her personal history - rough and smooth - and her rallying cry to continue the fight for women's equality.
I think friends can look forward to a copy in their Christmas stockings!
Thank you to netgalley and Little Brown for an advance copy of this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it, like its author, to be warm witty and more than Quite Interesting. The book is part memoir, part history of the parts of London through which the Number 12 bus passes as well as a social commentary so there is much to fascinate, delight and entertain..
Through the pages you can find the answers to many questions like why Sandi tilts her head, what she said to the Queen Mother and also why she was holding the hand of Neil Armstrong's secretary. There are also fun stories about what she learned about a boxer simply from his screensaver, what she was doing in bed with Alan Coren and also the things that people have said to her in motorway service stations. We also encounter some of the less welcome intrusions into her life and the sad things that have happened and unsurprisingly we hear yet again of the nest of vipers that is the Daily Mail.
This book introduces us to the Sandi Toksvig of the television world as well as giving a glimpse into her life and her thoughts, through the situations she has found herself in, the people she has met and the experiences she has had, we also meet campaigning Sandi as she highlights the absence of women from history through to the emergence of the Women's Equality Party and all that it stands for.
A range of emotions are shown throughout but for me the most over-riding one is love, from Sandi's love of life, and her sense of humour through to her deep and meaningful love of her wife Debbie, the love of her family especially her Papa and her genuine love for all people who she hopes would just get on a lot better with each other.
A five star book from a five star personality.

#BetweenTheStops #NetGalley

An absolute treat of a book that is part memoir, part travelogue, part history and part manifesto. Toksvig has you seesawing between hysterical giggles, pathos and righteous indignation with great skill.
I liked they style of autobiography a lot as it picks key moments rather than charting every movement and I am definitely going to use the buses in London more,

If you adore reading well executed observational thoughts that stem from acerbic wit and an open, erudite mind, then look no further. This book is part memoir, part social, literary, theatrical, political and historical commentary, and part comedy. It might sound heavy but it's actually full of levity.

Sandi Toksvig writes quite poetically and has a marvellous way of making small snippets of fact sound fascinating. She is also adept at stirring the heart strings as she reveals empathy, sensitivity and understanding toward others, especially those who share the number 12 bus journey she is on.

Tender, tear-jerking anecdotes sit alongside wry humour, and some laugh-out-loud moments of sheer hilarity as well. In reviewing her life while travelling to work, and mulling on the sights along the way, the past is vividly brought to life and deeper curiosity is created in the reader as each new fact emerges.

The author's ability as a raconteur is revealed in her excellent eavesdropping listening skills with fellow passengers. Each tale is related with an eagerness to better comprehend those around her, whilst mining for irreverent comedic effect where appropriate.

I love her refreshing candour, plus the little inside glimpses into life as a Bake Off host, among other career highlights and delights. This memoir sings with resounding cheer even in the hard. All aimed at inspiring and encouraging us to notice more on our daily commute or in our daily grind. Highly recommended.

The appeal of a memoir is very heavily based on the subject of the book - it's worth being fussy about which ones you pick up. So when I saw an offering from Sandi Toksvig I had to grab with both hands. I first noticed her back in the days of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" - a part of her life that gets fairly little mention due to the huge volume of work she's done both before and after. But also, because this is a book about far more than her career. Yes, there are the not unexpected childhood memories, but it's a history of London too. We really do ride the number 12 from Dulwich to central London with a collection of marvellous anecdotes and historical trivia. Arguably rather more unexpected for a memoir about a Dane who was initially raised in America.

Honestly, if you're interested in reading about Sandi's television career this book will be somewhat lacking for you. She touches on a number of her jobs, both high profile and somewhat more obscure, but they are brief mentions, almost asides or segues between something she clearly cares about dearly, the world around her. There is a warmth when she talks about her family, across all the generations, which few memoirs seem to capture. These aren't just stories to fill gaps, there is pride and affection when talking about her loved ones.

There is also a sincere interest, and concern, for the world around her. She has a wonderful tone when talking about subjects that matter to her, primarily female and LGBTQ+ rights but across a broad spectrum. Unlike many commentators today, she doesn't preach. You're in no doubt how she feels, and she will share a number of details and the occasional personal perspective, but ultimately the reader is left to find their own opinions on these issues. So uncommon but refreshing these days.

As for London? Sandi does an amazing job of sharing some lesser-known but riveting tidbits of info. For a city that has had so much written about it, she found an affectionate outlook upon the capital, even in some unexpected ways and places. We get villains and vegetables. Rights and wrongs. She reminds us what a rich tapestry the capital is, and shares her love for the place well.

The introduction opens with sound advice. "Life is too short to read a book that upsets you." And, judging by some passages, the poor reviewer at the Daily Mail will find themselves rather upset but forced to read on. However, the rest of us have a choice in whether or not we read it. And if you can't find joy in stories about four nuns in a clapped-out Fiat 500 then maybe this isn't the book for you. But if you are a fan of Sandi as an author, actress, television star, political activist, sailor, lighthouse painter, assistant in the Apollo 11 moon landings, or one of the countless other endeavours she recounts - grab a copy. This is a woman deserving of our time, and our respect. This is a book that can bring a little joy and warmth into your life. Enjoy, I know I did.

I love Sandi Toksvig, her wit, humour, intelligence and her passion for equality.

All these things are bound up in this neat quirky memoir, which follows the route of the number 12 bus from Dulwich to Central London, recounting a myriad of observations en route and prompting many memories from Toksvig's life, a really clever and entertaining journey.

Highly entertaining, I thoroughly recommend this.

I so looked forward to reading this biography, and fully expected to enjoy it, as I really like and admire Sandi Toksvig. However I found it slow and plodding, the early part with lengthy descriptions of moving around a bus route in London - fine if you are very familiar with the streets of London, but meaningless if you are not. I struggled to read to 30% in, then I’m sorry to say, I gave up, as I really didn’t look forward to going back to this book. Maybe this is a good one to read in tandem with a gripping fiction story, which I might try, to find out if I enjoy it any more. I wish I could have liked it more.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this title.

Sandi Toksvig tells us that she doesn’t want to write a memoir and is - instead - tracing the history of London through the bus route she so often travels.,
But this is indeed a memoir and - although I found the local history interesting - I enjoyed the tales of Sandi’s past and her brushes with the great and the good far more.
She is a natural writer, funny and self-deprecating but also brave and always ready to stand up for what she believes in.
I particularly enjoyed the themes of women’s and fat rights, and the continuing injustice that she fights.
Thoroughly recommended as a great blend of history, feminist polemic and intriguing personal anecdote well told.

Sandi Toksvig's memoir is not a straightforward affair, she intersperses her personal history around the framework of her many journeys, on the top deck of the number 12 bus, where she provides her knowledgeable local history of London on the route it takes. It runs for seven and a half miles from Dulwich to the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London. It is in the style of a casual conversation, anecdotal, and because it's Sandi, it is, of course, destined to be comic and witty, which made reading it a breeze as I found myself bursting out in laughter constantly. Sandi is now over 60, has a bus pass, she gives us many details of her personal life, snippets from her childhood, travelling with her family as her father, a Danish journalist, worked in the United States, to more recent times, presenting The Great British Bake Off and QI. She has worked in radio, TV and the stage for more than 40 years, and she certainly has no plans of quitting any time soon.

Sandi has an inbuilt love and curiosity for local history, and she demonstrates this by making London's past come vibrantly alive. From the farms that once thrived in the city, to the arts, theatre, and the rich white men and the religiously pious after whom so many of the streets are named. She diligently points out it is rare for women to be recognised in the sphere of public spaces, and even rarer for black and ethnic minority women, with the exception of a blue plaque commemorating Una Marsh (1905-65). This does not sit well with Sandi, a feminist from an early age and a co-founder of the Women's Equality Party. She provides a thoughtful and intelligent social and political commentary on London's history and our more contemporary times, on how London has developed at the behest of the rich and powerful, who had every intention of controlling the working classes and the poor.

Sandi writes of her personal experience of being a lesbian, the difficulties she encountered at Girton College, Cambridge, and being forced to come out in public by the Daily Mail, and the stresses on her family and partner, Peta, at the time. She describes her time at a boarding school as a form of expensive child abuse, a largely a miserable and isolating period, finding solace in books, a love for which is to last a life time. I was angered on her behalf when I read of how she auditioned for the position of hosting Have I Got News For You in the 1990s, and despite doing better than Angus Deayton, lost out because she was a woman. Sandi has oodles of charisma and personality, she writes with humanity, verve, honesty, and style, peppered throughout with comic humour.

Sandi's struggles with being who she is, at a time when there were hardly any women who were out and proud in public, and for good reason given how they were pilloried and judged, are clearly laid out, I really felt for her and I would like to think it is a little easier in today's age, but it is isn't always necessarily so. This is one of the best memoirs I have ever read, not to mention that it is educational in the local history it provides, it is all done with a skilfully light touch and is so much fun. Sandi Toksvig, I would like to say, is a absolutely marvellous woman! Highly recommended. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

Entertaining and eye-opening memoir from Sandi Toksvig.

This book has three main themes: Sandi Toksvig's memoirs consisting of incidents and anecdotes, her historical look at various places along the number 12 bus route and a general look at neglected historical important female figures with some conjecture about present-day life. Each chapter jumps from one point ot another and generally the book is entertaining and an easy read. It's full of interesting anecdotes about her career and there's a lot to learn from it. Recommended

A remarkable novel, just what you would expect from Sandi- full of wit and knowledge. I only wish I could have been on the bus beside her to fully appreciate and see at first hand the places she passed and visited, rather than trying to visual them. I also enjoyed her sharing details of her journey through life.