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Michael Joseph has ensured at least one high-profile comic memoir will be published in autumn 2011 with the acquisition of a memoir by Lee Evans.
Katie Follain, publisher for non-fiction at MJ, bought UK and Commonwealth rights for one book from Addison Cresswell at Off the Kerb Productions. The book, as yet untitled, will follow Evans' life up until 1993, when he won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival for his comedy show.
One publisher estimated the deal was worth in excess of £3m, a figure Follain flatly denied. She said: "It was nowhere near that amount." She said the book would be positioned at the "Peter Kay market", as it will be similar to the Sound of Laughter by looking at Evans' childhood.
She said: "He has had a very colourful childhood so the memoir promises to be fascinating and hilarious." Evans' father was a travelling musician and he spent most of his childhood following his dad up and down the country.
Before he attended art college, Evans, 45, trained to be a boxer. She continued: "What I think makes him appeal is he is very much an everyman. If you watch his stand-up, he's very much a man baffled by modern life and that will be reflected in his book." Evans will write the book with a co-author.
According to Cresswell, Evans sold more than 1.3 million copies of his last stand-up DVD, which was released in 2008. More than 500,000 people tickets were sold for his 59-date tour in the same year.