A Beginner's Guide To Acting English - Couverture rigide

It's 1977 and life in Iran is becoming unpredictable. The Shah will be overthrown and events are about to take place on the world stage. But for five-year-old Shappi Khorsandi all this means is that she must flee, leaving behind a mad extended Iran clan and everything she has ever known.

Shappi and her beloved brother Peyvand arrive with their parents in London - all cold weather and strange food - without a word of English. If adapting to a new culture isn't troubling enough, it soon becomes clear that the Ayatollah's henchmen are in pursuit. With the help of MI5, Shappi's family go into hiding. So apart from checking under the family car for bombs every morning, Shappi's childhood is like any other kids' - swings in the park, school plays, kiss-chase and terrorists.

'An extraordinary story...really funny and warm'
Graham Norton

"Britain's best young female comic by any yardstick" (Guardian)

"[Shappi] has a fascinating story to tell, married to one of the warmest, most engaging performance styles I have seen" (Observer)

"Shappi Khorsandi has been an endearing Iranian voice on the stand-up circuit for a number of years. This memoir arguably provides a better platform for her wealth of stories" (Metro)

"A touching memoir" (Independent)

"Written with an admirable lightness of touch and a novelist's eye for comic detail" (Observer)