About the Author

Judith Lucy is a local funny lady who has whored herself out to any medium that would have her, including radio (the less said about that the better) and film (most recently she was the racist in The Sapphires). She is probably best known as a stand-up comedian who has hauled her sorry arse around the country, and occasionally overseas, with ten one-woman shows. She wrote The Lucy Family Alphabet, in which she squeezed the last bit of humour out of her dead parents for cash. Most recently, she made the television series Judith Lucy's Spiritual Journey for the ABC, because she really wanted a free trip to India and the opportunity to dress up as a Viking (you'll have to watch the show).

Reviews

A great deal of Judith Lucy's successful stand-up shtick has centred around her crazy family and in particular her parents. Therefore when someone made a passing comment that implied she must despised them Lucy was shocked and decided to set the record straight. This A to Z (A is for arguments, B is for bathing...) of the Lucy family is both funny and honest but mostly it is a tragically poignant portrayal of life growing up in a dysfunctional family in the Perth of the 1960s and 1970s. While Lucy continues to mine the material for a joke anywhere she can find one, there are plenty of incidents where perhaps the only way to cope was to find the laugh. The Lucy Family Alphabet gives us insight into one of Australia's funniest comedians and provides the context for many of her long-running gags. Avoiding any of the usual relinquished-child narrative sentimentality, it is respectful of her parents' lopsided way of demonstrating their love while allowing Lucy's irreverent voice to remain distinctively clear. I am a sucker for any book as nakedly honest as this one but if you (or the intended recipient) are easily offended then perhaps this is not for you. Rachel Wilson is an academic and occasionally works at the Sun Bookshop Yarraville