Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes

'Hard to beat. I could read this sort of book for ever' Stephen Fry

'An unadulterated joy ... Every page is shot through with anecdote and wit, so that the whole experience feels like being at a peculiarly wonderful dinner party ... Funny, astute and clever' Observer

'A loving, lyrical, life-filled memoir' Guardian

Cold Cream is a sparkling autobiography in the great tradition: wonderfully perceptive, exquisitely rendered and bursting with characters and anecdotes of every shade and hue.

A tender, moving and witty portrait of Ferdinand Mount's family and his early life, it follows his bumbling path from his decadent upbringing in the world of 'Hobohemia' to his schooldays at Eton, and from the boozy depths of Fleet Street in the 60s to his years at the vortex of Downing Street in the 80s as speech writer (much to his own bemusement) for Margaret Thatcher.
Every sentence radiates with fondness, intelligence and humour in this utterly charming anthology of an eccentric and colourful cast of people who defined their generation.