Life's What You Make It

Life's What You Make It

The Sunday Times Bestseller 2020

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Life's What You Make It
,
the bravely honest and uplifting memoir from one of Britain's most cherished TV presenters, Phillip Schofield

For a long time, I felt that I couldn't write this book. At first, I didn't think I'd lived enough, then life got busy and filled with distractions. In more recent years, there was always a very painful consideration - I knew where it would eventually have to go.

I have recently decided that the truth is the only thing that can set me free. The truth has taken a long time to make itself clear to me, but now is the right time to share it, all of it.

Television and broadcasting has been a part of my DNA for as long as I can remember. As a young boy I would make model TV sets out of cardboard boxes, while spending long summers at home, barefoot on Cornwall's golden beaches. Landing a job at the ice-cream kiosk, I would enviously look on as my presenting heroes took to the stage of Radio 1's Roadshow, an unforgettable event when it came to town.

In Life's What You Make It I look back with nostalgic delight on my life, from being a young boy endlessly writing letters to the BBC in pursuit of a job in broadcasting, to making it on to the Broom Cupboard, with my infamous sidekick Gordon the Gopher, to being on Going Live and starring as the lead in Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. It has taken four decades to get here but I feel lucky to have called the sets of Talking Telephone Numbers, The Cube, Dancing on Ice and of course, This Morning, home.

I'm going to take you behind the scenes of my television home at ITV, into my career and my dangerously funny relationship with Holly Willoughby. I'm going to introduce you to my loving and remarkable family, and I hope most of all to tell you that life, it seems, is what you make it. Take it from someone who has sat on the very edge and looked over, it's all about the people that love you.

© Phillip Schofield 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Reviews

  • It's fascinating, it's funny and it's beautifully written . . . brilliant
    Chris Moyles, Radio X

About the author

Phillip Schofield

Phillip Schofield is one of our most loved TV presenters, having spent nearly 40 years hosting some of the biggest shows on screen. Since gaining popularity working as a children's presenter for the BBC hosting The Broom Cupboard in 1985, Phillip has gone on to present multiple series of Going Live and more recently, Dancing On Ice, The Cube, 5 Gold Rings, Mr & Mrs and two Royal Weddings.

He has performed on stage as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and as Doctor Dolittle.

Phillip has hosted ITV's This Morning since 2002, now alongside his "on screen wife" Holly Willoughby, which has won the National Television Award for Best Daytime Programme fifteen times.
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