Rob Beckett Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Rob Beckett
Rob Beckett is an English narrator, comedian, and presenter.

Rob was born in London, England on January 2, 1986. His dad (nicknamed “Super Dave”) was (over the course of his whole career) a driver of vans, oil tankers, lorries, and cabs. His dad would pick him up from comedy gigs, if he got done late enough, although his dad would happily kick him out of his cab if some big money airport job came along. He calls his mom “Big Suze”, who was a homemaker during his childhood and worked in a shop later.

Rob went to Edgebury Primary School and then Coopers School in Chislehurst. He then attended Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent from 2004 until 2007, where he studied Tourism Management.

He began performing stand up comedy in 2009. His performances led to a third place in “So You Think You’re Funny”, and winning the Amused Moose Laugh-Off which earned him an invitation to perform at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in Australia. While in Adelaide, he was nominated for the best newcomer award in 2011. In 2012, he made his debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with his solo show, called “Rob Beckett’s Summer Holiday”.

Rob got into comedy because everybody around him was funny growing up. His parents, all four of his brothers, his cousin. His parents were like that with their friends, if they’re not funny, why invite them around? So Rob never felt like he was all that funny. Being from the working class, so many funny people he knew didn’t think that they could become a comedian. However his Aunt Tina is funnier than some of the people he’s done Mock The Week with.

It took him until he was 35 to admit that comedy was not just a hobby that got out of control. It was true at the start, however he carried on saying it to sound normal and humble. As soon as he knew he was good at it, he was laser focused.

He struggles with self-doubt. This is something that he locates in his very early childhood, when his teachers would look at him and would see a stupid little fat kid that came from a working class family in southeast London. He was an awkward and nervous kid. But weirdly he never really cared what anybody else ever thought of him, just what he thought of himself, but he didn’t think that much of himself. It was this internalized thing.

He wrote “A Class Act” for a number of reasons. One was an act of resolution for himself, since his daughters are growing up in a much different environment to the one that he himself grew up in and he wants to express that (to them and to himself) in a lasting way. The second reason was for the bloke who works at Sainsbury’s or the flower market and they don’t really read books, he’s got one for them.

He wrote the book himself because all of his heroes, sports stars primarily, would get ghostwriters to write their books for them, and it normally is a very middle class voice, imagining what a working class person’s life is like. Or, when a working class person does actually write the book, they have been under so much pressure to fit in, academically, it is almost like an exercise in peacocking. Them showing that they are intelligent, clever in the academic way that everyone believes is intelligent, and look at all these big words.

“A Class Act: Life as a working-class man in a middle class world” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2021. Rob Beckett has never really fit in. at work, in the middle-class world of comedy and television, he is the cockney geezer, the laddie, however to his mates down at the pub in southeast London, he is the media luvvie, the theatrical one. Even at home, his kids and his wife are even posher than he is.

Rob, in this hilarious exploration of class, compares his life growing up as a working class kid to the life that he lives now, attempting to understand where it is he actually belongs.

Is he always going to be the fat kid that was told he would never be a high flyer? Will he ever favor craft beer over lager? Why does he feel ashamed if he does anything that’s even vaguely middle class? What happens if you eat 50 olives and drink two bottles of champagne? And why is ‘boner’ such a funny word?

Rob, while in search of answers, relives the moments in his life when the class divide could not be any more obvious. Whether it is the gig for rich bankers which was worse than Matt Hancock hosting the GQ Men of the Year Awards, showing up at a swanky celebrity house party with this blue bag of cans from the offy or identifying the root of his ambition as a childhood incident that involves soiled pants and “Jurassic Park”, Rob digs down deep.

“A Class Act” is his candid, funny, and often moving account of what it actually feels like to be an outsider and the valuable (sometimes humiliating) life lessons that he has learned along the way.

Rob expresses his sense of humor well through the way that he writes this book, and can fully imagine him saying these words while you read through his stories. He is funny, relatable, and has got a few words of wisdom thrown in for good measure. These stories are funny, but there is also a pathos, given that self-doubt and confidence were always an issue when he was growing up, along with poor body image and a teacher that told a young Beckett that he would never be a high flier. Rob’s honesty in this book takes people’s love of who Rob is to a whole other level, and makes this a must read book for any comedy fan.

This is an emotional truthful story of rags to riches, the struggle and achievement to becoming a household name comedian.