Tough Crowd - Graham Linehan

Do you think the Guardian writer is secretly gc?

She's subconsciously connecting current issues with Rotherham and thalidomide. Safeguarding, prejudice, and medical malpractise.

She's not wrong.

Yes, me too. I can see a lot of Guardian readers looking at the references to Thalidomide and Rotherham and wondering why the reviewer is so casually dismissive of Glinner's concerns.

The line about misgendering people made me laugh too. The two people he misgenders - or correctly sexes - are Steph Hayden and Aimee Challenor. If Sturges wants to stand up for their right to use female pronouns, it reflects less well on her than she imagines.

I've had my very sarcastic post deleted. I'm not quite sure which part broke the talk guidelines but maybe the sarcasm wasn't obvious so apologies if I got the tone wrong and it came across that I'm a misogynist arse!

My copy arrived a week ago ❤️

"The more he is abused for his opinions, the more entrenched and maniacal those opinions seem to become. Here, as on his Twitter page, he makes a show of misgendering trans men and women, and says he is stunned at his “inability to make people care about the daylight theft of women’s rights, or the greatest safeguarding scandal since Rotherham, or the greatest medical scandal since thalidomide”."

I do wonder how this quote will age. She simply dismisses all our concerns as though we are in the grip of a mania and the sane people are the ones pretending people can change sex.

Well, I'm only halfway through. So far it's a thoughtful, funny and interesting read and certainly nothing remotely maniacal about it. Looking forward to seeing how it develops.

The Guardian review calls him maniacal and sad.

My copy direct from the publisher arrived yesterday (bought because of the threads on here) and it appears I have a signed copy 🥰

I've just finished reading my lovely signed copy and thoroughly enjoyed finding out more about Graham's background and the timeline of his involvement in this nightmare we're going through.

I'm awed at his sacrifices and his steadfast belief and would love to give him a huge hug and tell him that I'll be there right to the end with him.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread. Hadn't thought of buying the book but think I will now.

I actually think Glinner comes across as entirely reasoned in this book. The reviewer makes no acknowledgement of it's actual success in terms of sales which hints that it might be such a peculiar obsession after all.

People wouldn't be buying it if they didn't think he had a point. I don't think it's a success because it's a kind of roadcrash reading. I think it's because people feel Glinner's views are being vindicated and they appreciate him sticking to his guns.

Brilliant! 😂

I have it on Audible. Really enjoying it but I'm filled with rage and sorrow on his behalf. Such a decent man, who really could have just not got involved and would still be a darling of the comedy circuit, but then, as I said, he's a decent man.

Yeah, I bet she thought Martin Luther King had a peculiar and self-defeating obsession with racism, and Emmeline Pankhurst had a peculiar and self-defeating obsession with women getting the vote too.

In other positive news, the book has even made it on to the Waterstones bestsellers list for general autobiography. Considering the fact they've not exactly been rushing to shine a light on it, I'd say that's not bad going.

Love this ad on Twitter with a quote from the grauniad:

*Hmm that was a bit negative of me. I should add that I think Rigsy is normally entertaining and good at his job, and I have also met him some time ago through work (my work not his- completely unrelated to his work) and he was very straightforward and decent. But that review was mince. Which was uncharacteristic and therefore disappointing.

The reviewer calls Linehan's activism, sorry, "activism" (as if it doesn't deserve that term), "a peculiar and self defeating obsession".
No evidence to support that claim, just completely dismissive.

I was surprised by that Belfast Live review. It was so cringing and buck-passing that I thought it had been written by some underconfident teenage unknown struggling to make their way in the arts/media world. Then I scrolled back to the top to see it had been written by Rigsy, a well established DJ and radio personality here who I would have thought was old enough to know his own mind and not come up with this mealy mouthed, handwringing "Don't hate me pleeeease" stuff. Either review it or don't review it but don't tiptoe about.

lol you wouldn’t understand The Guardisn - it’s called integrity

as usual they behave as if misgendering was the worst crime in the history of the universe instead of actually trying to rebut his arguments

Oh The Guardian.....how tediously predictable of you.
You'll be telling us your made up personal pronouns next....
(Yawns....)

I already have it from Eye Books. But I do want to buy another copy as a present.

I just read that review, @RoyalCorgi , and couldn't agree more. At least explain what Linehan's argument is, rather than just the personal attacks on someone the reviewer dismisses as unhinged. For example, there is no context to him using social media when recovering from cancer surgery. It's just written to make him sound weird.

Please Glinner sue the Guardian for defamation.

So, is the Guardian saying they don't care if children are sterilised and women's rights and children's safeguarding dismantled, as long as no-one gets 'misgendered' then? Note made....

How weird that the Guardian bothered to review a book that didn't sell / did sell but all to the same 6 far right funded unfuckable women.

None of those three things sound 'maniacal' to me. They sound fuckling serious, which they are. Bit surprised at the Graun doubling down like this, after having shown a bit of a more nuanced position before. Still, fuck 'em.

I'd rather be a maniac fighting for justice than a smug, posturing Guardian writer sneering at people with a more highly-developed sense of decency and moral compass than I possess.

Simon Edge has a thread pointing out that the reviewer "chooses to repeat her paper's misleading claim that @glinner received a police warning, linking to the story the Guardian published to that effect in October 2018."

https://twitter.com/simonjedge/status/1719723456701603847