Musical impressionist writes a memoir comparing her life to her refugee grandmother

Musical impressionist Jess Robinson has written her first book, which she describes as ‘the most personal thing I’ve ever created’.

Life Is Rosi: Grandma, Me And Our Diaries At 23 is billed as part memoir and part ‘funny family history’ in which the comedian compares her life with her German Jewish grandmother Rosi.

When Rosi was 23, she was expelled from Nazi Germany and interned as a refugee in Zbąszyń, Poland. She used her diary to document every detail of her experiences, from being deported by the Gestapo to stolen conversations with her first love.

When Jess was 23, she was living in London, struggling with a fledgling acting career, a failed love life and rock-bottom self-esteem. She used her diary to rant about her mum and track her daily calories. 

Writing in a newsletter to fans today, Robinson said: ‘Years later, I started reading Rosi’s diaries for the first time. What I found was a deeply moving connection to the past — and to her — that made me reflect on everything from inherited trauma to the weird, winding ways we become ourselves.’ 

The publisher’s blurb explains how the Dead Ringers regular dug into the archives of her German-Jewish ancestry to find out more about herself, adding: 'After all, it’s easy to forget who you really are when you spend every day pretending to be other people…’

Life Is Rosi: Grandma, Me And Our Diaries At 23 will be published by HarperCollins imprint Mudlark on January 29 next year.

Jess Robinson will be bringing her Elton John inspired show Your Song to Assembly George Square Gardens at the Edinburgh Fringe, having just completed a short run at the Soho Theatre in London.

• Life Is Rosi: Grandma, Me And Our Diaries At 23 is available from Amazon priced £16.99 in hardback  – or from uk.bookshop.org, below, which supports independent bookstores.

Published: 9 Jul 2025