Is that the worst book cover you’ve ever seen in your life? Roseanne, if you’re reading this, I love you. Please write book 3 now.

Roseanne’s second autobiography, plentifully available on Amazon second-hand for one cent (or $23 “collectible”, what’s that all about?), came yesterday. It’s a much better piece of writing than the first one, and a lot more revelatory, and if you were thinking of becoming an internationally-famous comedian with your own show, will probably make you want to be an accountant instead. Roseanne’s life has to be the original Car Wreck. Ouf.

She made me think about how children were treated in the 60s and 70s before “child abuse” was invented, when all parents were perfect whatever they did and children were always wrong or lying. Quite a lot of really quite appalling stuff that was short of extreme violence/ attack, more like ongoing long-term harrassment, neglect, inappropriateness etc. I suspect that parents these days do, on the whole, take their job a whole lot more seriously, and do better at it. Some of what everyone regarded as normal when I was a kid still makes my hair stand on end. I suppose the adults were just “having a go”, and thought it was all “OK” although they sorta kinda felt like maybe they were “going a bit too far” but then again, why not and nobody would notice. They were right, nobody ever did. But that doesn’t save you from coming back as the fly in my kitchen..