[Books] Peggy and Me Audible Review

After the delight of Is It Just Me, I was surprised  to see that the ever-lovable Miranda Hart had written another book, but the subject matter felt a little unusual. She had mentioned her dog Peggy towards the end of that book and I appreciate a good dog story as much as anyone else. But for her to come release a second book quite focused  on her canine companion did surprise me a bit.

Peggy & Me is very much that from start to finish - a book about her life  pre-Peggy, with Peggy and potentially post-Peggy when that day might eventually come around. There is nothing overly technical about this book nor is this a sort of how-to guide about having a dog. This is still more biographical in tone and is more a book about her life as a pet owner.

And I found myself relating a lot to your her journey and her feelings for her dog an that make the book all the more enjoyable.

Synopsis: Peggy & Me is another biographical book written by Miranda Hart. But instead of merely adding on to her prior title, this one re-examines her life with a focus on her role as a pet-owner.

Things start interestingly enough with Miranda not at all a "dog person". She goes on at length about how she's really more into cats as they suit her personality better. But given the cover of the book, you already know that she'll somehow end up with a dog. And this book follows her internal monologue of sorts as she eventually gets to become the loving owner of Peggy.

Similar to how Is It Just Me? featured a second voice in the form of a young Miranda, this book has Miranda competing for page space with her dog Peggy. Thus this becomes an interesting exploration of Miranda's life as a pet owner and Peggy's (supposed) thoughts during this whole process. And really, the book is a celebration of all the ups and downs of pet ownership (or at least dog ownership) in a distinctly Miranda fashion.

What I Liked: Miranda remains as clever as ever in her writing and this book remains to be a great little sharing of her life. The story of how the original manuscript for this book had been lost when her apartment was burgled was a little heartbreaking and I can't imagine trying to recover from that loss. But the resulting book is a testament to her commitment to telling this story of her and Peggy.

It's hard to say how this book might be received by non-dog lovers as Peggy does quickly become the focus of the narrative. This is a good and a bad thing of course depending on how you look at it, but I do feel like Miranda's efforts to convey her love for Peggy is certainly infectious enough to get anyone to consider owning a dog or at the very least feeling the need to play with one after finishing this title.

What Could Have Been Better: Somewhat similar to the last book, if you expect this biography to focus more on her life as a comedian and entertainer then you'll be significantly disappointed. This doesn't make the book bad, but having the right expectations is rather important and getting the wrong idea about what this is can sour your impression of the book.

At the same time, Miranda speaking as Peggy in this audio book can be something that is terribly endearing or oddly annoying. I enjoyed it, but I can totally get how it may not be everyone's cup of tea. If you weren't too impressed with Miranda speaking as a younger version of herself in the last book then I doubt her Peggy personification will do that much better.

TL;DR: Peggy and Me is a candid celebration of Miranda Hart's love for her dog Peggy. It's something that any dog lover can appreciate and at times find quite familiar. Thus the audio book gets a great 5 Peggy exclamations of love for Miranda out of a possible 5.