I REMEMBER...Jenny Eclair
Reader's Digest UK|Reader's Digest May 2023
Jenny Eclair (63) came to fame as a Perrier Award winner and is best known for Grumpy Old Women and her stand-up shows. She looks back on being an army brat, working as a life model and her many forays into reality TV
Simon Button
I REMEMBER...Jenny Eclair

MY FATHER WAS ABSENT A LOT BECAUSE HE WAS IN THE ARMY. I was born in Kuala Lumpur, but my first memory is after we’d moved back to England, when I was living with Mum in Blackpool. I was around three when Dad came home from Arabia, where he was stationed; he put me on his shoulders and pretended that he didn’t know where we lived. We went up and down the road, with him going down the wrong garden paths and asking, "Is it this house?".

MY MOTHER WAS EXTRAORDINARY. She was an army wife who didn’t work, didn’t do much housework and read a lot of books. She only just died this year, actually. My parents had longevity. They had rubbish hair and my dad had rubbish legs and genetically I haven’t been blessed with very much, but longevity does run in the family. Dad was 90 when he died and Mum was 93. She was probably the most stoic woman I’ve ever met. I’m on loads more heart medication than she ever was. She contracted polio when she was 22 but I think she took half an aspirin her entire life.

I WAS AROUND FOUR WHEN I FOUND I COULD MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH. I used to gatecrash my parents’ dinner parties, where I’d come down wearing my dad’s hats. I liked attention. We didn’t have a television and made up a lot of stories to entertain ourselves. There was a giddiness inside me that I could feel and I just liked laughing, making others laugh and pulling faces.

Denne historien er fra Reader's Digest May 2023-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra Reader's Digest May 2023-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA READER'S DIGEST UKSe alt
EVERY SECOND COUNTS: TIPS TO WIN THE RACE AGAINST TIME
Reader's Digest UK

EVERY SECOND COUNTS: TIPS TO WIN THE RACE AGAINST TIME

Do you want to save 1.5 seconds every day of your life? According to the dishwasher expert at the consumer organisation Choice, there’s no need to insert the dishwashing tablet into the compartment inside the door.

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
May Fiction
Reader's Digest UK

May Fiction

An escaped slave's perspective renews Huckleberry Finn and the seconds tick down to nuclear Armageddon in Miriam Sallon’s top literary picks this month

time-read
1 min  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Wine Not
Reader's Digest UK

Wine Not

In a time of warning studies about alcohol consumption, Paola Westbeek looks at non-alcoholic wines, how they taste and if they pair with food

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Train Booking Hacks
Reader's Digest UK

Train Booking Hacks

With the cost of train travel seemingly always rising, Andy Webb gives some tips to save on ticket prices

time-read
4 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
JOURNEY TO SALTEN, NORWAY, UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Reader's Digest UK

JOURNEY TO SALTEN, NORWAY, UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN

Here, far from the crowds, in opal clarity, from May to September, the sun knows no rest. As soon as it’s about to set, it rises again

time-read
8 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
My Britain: Cheltenham
Reader's Digest UK

My Britain: Cheltenham

A YEAR IN CHELTENHAM sees a jazz festival, a science festival, a classical music festival and a literature festival. Few towns with 120,000 residents can boast such a huge cultural output!

time-read
6 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
GET A GREEN(ER) THUMB
Reader's Digest UK

GET A GREEN(ER) THUMB

Whether you love digging in the dirt, planting seeds and reaping the bounty that bursts forth, or find the whole idea of gardening intimidating, this spring offers the promise of a fresh start.

time-read
6 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Under The GRANDFLUENCE Suzi Grant
Reader's Digest UK

Under The GRANDFLUENCE Suzi Grant

After working in TV and radio as an author and nutritionist, Suzi Grant started a blog alternativeageing.net) and an Instagram account alternativeageing). She talks to Ian Chaddock about positive ageing”

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Sam Quek: If I Ruled The World
Reader's Digest UK

Sam Quek: If I Ruled The World

Sam Quek MBE is an Olympic gold medalwinning hockey player, team captain on A Question of Sport and host of podcast series Amazing Starts Here

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Stand Tall, Ladies
Reader's Digest UK

Stand Tall, Ladies

Shorter men may be having their moment, but where are the tall women?

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024