Mark Steel for The Leopard In My House

'A deep, personal, clever and witty book' - Michael Rosen

Mark Steele joins us this April for his deeply humane, funny, and inspiring book, The Leopard In My House. We hope to see you there.

I feel like there's a leopard in my house, locked in a room. I've contacted the leopard authorities and they assure me they are used to dealing with leopards like this, and they have a plan for removing the leopard. It will take a while, though, and once in a while I can hear it growl.

And that's all very reassuring. Even so, several times a day I think to myself: "Hang on, there's a leopard in my house."

One morning, while shaving, the comedian Mark Steel noticed that one side of his neck seemed larger than the other. After a whistlestop tour of assorted medical professionals, a consultant delivered the ominous words that would define the next months of his life: 'I'm afraid it's not good news, Mr Steel'.

And so began a journey into the heart of the NHS, as he embarked on the long and uncertain road to cancer recovery via a range of mildly torturous and entirely miraculous treatments. What, if anything, might he learn about himself - and our capacity for coping with life when times get tough - as he becomes part of a club that one in two British people will ultimately join?

A frank and funny diary of one man's rather trying year, this is an unforgettable and uplifting story of getting ill, getting on with it, and getting better.

Sony and Writers' Guild Award-winning writer and comedian Mark Steel is best known for his critically acclaimed BBC Radio 4 show Mark Steel's in Town. Mark has presented the BAFTA-nominated Mark Steel Lectures for BBC Two, and is a regular on BBC One's Have I Got News for You and BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz. He has also written several acclaimed books, including Reasons to be Cheerful and What's Going On? He has also written an adaptation of his critically acclaimed stand-up show Who Do I Think I Am? for Audible, which was released in 2021.