Book review by Scott Varnham

There’s no point putting any jokes in this review. Rhys James, one of the breakout stars from latter-day Mock the Week, has used them all in his new book.

You’ll Like It When You Get There – a common phrase from his mum during childhood – is billed as a ‘dread memoir’, with the core premise being that he dreads social engagements until he gets there. ‘My issue isn’t the doing,’ James says in an early chapter. ‘It’s the thinking about doing. Dread is my commute. But far too often, it stops me making the journey.’ It’s an extremely relatable comment in a book full of them; the kind of book where you find yourself taking pictures or screenshots to show friends and family how you live.

Anybody who has dreaded an upcoming wedding or going the pub for a drink, only to have a great time once they settle in, will find themselves nodding along throughout the book.

This also applies to people who struggle to switch off. When writing about a trip to Sri Lanka, he gives an insight into his thoughts: ‘Every moment of the [holiday] is scheduled, even down to the seemingly unplannable: ‘1600-1700: Relax,’ which heaps so much pressure on me it renders itself near impossible.’

Although You’ll Like It features hilarious anecdotes from all stages of his life, like the grim bit about the ‘eccentric’ flatmate who didn’t use a towel after showering, it’s not the usual charity shop fodder written by someone off the telly. In fact, his TV career is only mentioned in passing; readers shouldn’t come in hoping for salacious insights from Mock The Week or the Great American Joke Off. If he does write a second book, that’s definitely fertile ground to cover.

The chapters are more focused on topics like his firm decision not to get married and have children, the logical flaw with the therapy system, and the time he unsuccessfully pretended to be French to become a moderator of the early-internet game Project Rockstar. 

The chapter Neighbourhood Listen – which tells us about the troubles he’s had with neighbours through the years – was particularly good. You can’t help but feel sympathy for him when you read sentences like: ‘The neighbour’s six-year-old we share a bedroom wall with has recently set his morning alarm to 4am, despite there being zero evidence he delivers milk for a living.’ Especially when the six-year-old doesn’t turn off the alarm for 12 straight minutes.

In contrast, the essay Based On A True Story didn’t land for me at all. It’s a flight of fancy, a kernel of insight (there are way too many ‘business biopic’ films like The Social Network) stretched out to full-chapter length. It’s a plot outline for a such a movie about a comedian whose entire business model is that he’s young. If you don’t vibe with what it’s doing immediately, the rest of the chapter will leave you cold.   

But this is an outlier; the book in general does have an astonishing hit rate. James has filled every page with quick asides to provoke barks of laughter on public transport and keep a smile on your face throughout. (For example, he describes himself aged 16 as ‘looking for love, rather than meaningless sex…the exact same motivations as Carrie Bradsha"’.) It’s so clear that he has put a lot of thought and effort into the book, and this collection of finely crafted essays proves that he has a solid future as a columnist or humorist if he chooses to follow it.

In the chapter Til Death Do We Have To?, he describes the state of being fancied by somebody else as ‘walking a tightrope over two cliffs [as opposed to a comfortable three hour drive to the beach]’. It’s much more of a balancing act to alternate between top-tier comedy and being genuinely insightful, and James manages that with ease.

• You’ll Like It When You Get There by Rhys James is published by Wildfire and available from Amazon priced £18.41  – or from uk.bookshop.org, below, which supports independent bookstores.

Published: 3 Sep 2025