In the age of the humblebrag, Sue Perkins is quite something. The national treasure has finely tuned her self-deprecation over the course of her career and it shows no sign of slipping. In Spectacles, her delightful memoir, she’d be forgiven for blowing her own trumpet rather spectacularly, but instead she downplays almost every success in her life, and pretty much predicts Spectacles will sit on supermarket shelves gathering dust.
But judging by the reaction the book has had to date, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Spectacles has generated headline after headline, from the heartbreaking story about discovering she couldn’t have children because of a benign brain tumour, to the utterly shocking revelation that she once had a relationship with a chap called Rob.