I’ve mentioned Warwick Davis a number of times on this blog with his interview on Able Radio and his interview in Disability Now and have been anxious to get hold of his autobiography Size Matters Not for some time now.  Imagine how glad I was to find a copy of the hardback in my local library and quickly grabbed it in case there was any other short people in the vicinity who would grab it from under me nose.

I found having the book whipped away by another dwarf wasn’t the issue, it was having it wrestled from my hand by my Beau, who upon seeing the Ewok photo on the front cover meant I had to wait another few days before saw the book again.  What can I say, he’s a Star Wars fan.   Once Beau had finished I was deigned to be able to read the book and am very glad I did so.

You know it’s going to be a good book when you’ve laughed out loud more than twice within the first few chapters. It starts at his birth and finishes in 2010 with Warwick talking about his new series with Ricky Gervais.

He has had (and continues to have) a spectacular and successful career as an actor and his recollections of his movie-making times on Star Wars, Willow, Labyrinth, Harry Potter and horror movie death-defying Leprechaun make for fascinating reading and you get a sense of how hard he applies himself to each role.  I think he is quite rightly proud of his achievements. It’s also touching and heart-breaking as he talks about the personal challenges that he and his family have faced.

Warwick’s recollection of his most surreal moments of his life make this one of the funniest books I have ever read.  I don’t want to spoil it for the people who haven’t read it yet, but the part where he and his wife are honeymooning in San Francisco and realise that he can’t reach the hand-break of the adapted car on a near vertical, jam-packed hill, having to alternate from reversing to accelerating to keep the car from hurtling backwards had me howling with laughter so much so that my beau came upstairs to find out what I was finding so hilarious.   To me it was one of those small person moments where you realise, s**t, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all and is still making me laugh as I type this review.  Another was how he was nearly banned from his local supermarket on health and safety grounds because he was scaling the shelves to get his groceries into the trolley.  I can totally relate to not wanting to ask for assistance going around the supermarket, as many a frustrating grocery shop I have had, where I know I should ask for help, but don’t want to make the small talk (no pun intended!) and will drag my shopping bags off the till even if I know I’ll suffer with the aches for the rest of the day.

It’s heart-warming to hear of another person who has to deal with the same issues that we restricted growth people.  My only gripe is that at times he underplays the attention and the challenges that we as short people face on a daily basis, but then again his positive attitude is commendable and something to aspire to.

All I can say is if you’re a little person reading this, is enjoy it and go with the flow.  If your a normie, don’t feel guilty for laughing as this is a book that is most definitely here to shine a light on the life of a person with three gifts – restricted growth, acting and the ability to tell a bloody good story.

Buy Size Matters Not by Warwick Davis on Amazon* »

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