Where Did I Go Right?

How the Left Lost Me

By: Geoff Norcott

Narrated by: Geoff Norcott

'Voting Conservative is like buying a James Blunt album: loads of people have done it, but weirdly you never meet them....'

Comedian Geoff Norcott should have been Labour through and through. He grew up on a council estate, both of his parents were disabled, and his dad was a Union man. So, how was it that he grew up to vote Tory?

In this courageously honest and provocative memoir, Geoff unpicks his working-class upbringing and his political journey from left to right. Raised by a fierce matriarch and a maverick father on a South London council estate where they filmed scenes for The Bill, Geoff spends his youth attempting to put out kitchen fires with aerosols and leaping in and out of industrial skips. But as he reaches adolescence, his political views begin to be influenced by major events including the early '90s recession, the credit crunch, and a chance encounter with Conservative PM John Major.

As an adult, Geoff begins to have the gnawing feeling that the values and traditions he grew up with no longer match Labour's. And, as Brexit appears, he feels even more like a double agent operating behind enemy lines.

Written with warmth, wit and often laugh-out-loud humour, Where Did I Go Right? is Geoff's attempt to understand why he ended up voting 'for the bad guys', and why blue-collared conservatism could be here to stay.

©2021 Geoff Norcott (P)2021 Octopus Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"Few people walk the line of thought provoking and laugh out loud funny like Geoff Norcott." (Romesh Ranganathan)

"Where Did I Go Right? is sharp, considered, insightful, and helped me make sense of 'the other side'. And because Geoff Norcott is so funny, it unfortunately means I can't dismiss his views entirely. It's so important to have a friend you can disagree with but still admire and Geoff can be that friend to you!" (Katherine Ryan)

"I've always thought the benefit of having batsh*t parents is it increases the chance of you growing up funny. It's certainly worked for Geoff Norcott." (David Baddiel)

"Brave...and vividly evoked.... 'How the left lost me' is a phrase that should haunt Kier Starmer et al. Looking at the collapse of the 'red wall', at the last election, there do seem to be a lot of disgruntled Geoffs out there." (The Telegraph)

"While I stand firmly at the other end of the political spectrum, it provided fascinating and well-considered insights into how the half think and, as such, should be read by both Reds and Blues." (Love Reading UK)

Absolutely excellent.

A must-read for anyone trying to get to grips with modern western politics and culture

Excellent, I can’t believe Bezos hasn’t banned it yet

This book is fascinating, hilarious, and speaks to the classismdeeply imbedded the rest of the world, that the United States