David Sedaris is Stalking Me

6 November 2012 /

For those of you who don’t know, David Sedaris is a very funny man whose work I have long admired. I have known for some time that he is, like me, an expat, but that was hardly notable; there are a lot of expats around these days.

What I did not know was that Mr. Sedaris had a series of shows on BBC Radio 4, where he would read selected essays to a live audience. I accidentally bumped into these broadcasts during an ironing marathon one Sunday afternoon back in May and have been a keen listener every since.

David Sedaris, comedian, writer, stalker

During this weekend’s episode, however, Mr. Sedaris tipped his hand: becoming a fan and finding his show were not merely pleasant accidents, he has been stalking me.

Mr. Sedaris (or, should I call him “Dave,” as we seem to be intimately connected) was born just about two years after me, in Binghamton, New York, so his stalking started early, with him literally following me into the world. And now, some (pick a number—a large one) years later, after the two of us move to the other side of the world, it turns out we’re neighbors. In his essay “Rubbish” Dave tells how he and his partner came to live in a little Sussex village just down the road from me. Coincidence? I think not.

Okay, maybe is just a fluke, but at least this gives me another opportunity to talk about the shameful state of Britain’s roads, and the endemic insouciance the British have concerning litter. I’ve banged on about this before, but Dave does a truly marvelous and hysterical job of shining a light on this nefarious activity. So go have a listen; you’ll be glad you did.

And stop throwing your crap all over this beautiful country; you should be ashamed of yourselves!

Britain the beautiful

7 Comments

  • Ms Sparrow

    6 November 2012 at 4:21 pm

    Thank you for the link to Sedaris's show. I'll bet you were shocked when he mentioned the litter on the road by Horsham! Unfortunately, the roads around the Twin Cities have considerable litter too. I'm often fighting the urge to jump out and pick it up. The bus stop down at the corner is so atrocious that I have to give the people waiting there a very stern look when I drive by!

  • Unknown

    7 November 2012 at 12:14 am

    Lucky you – maybe you'll even bump into him soon! I was very pleased to discover that Sedaris had also lived in Normandy for a while (though not near me). But I'm nowhere close to your league!

  • Mike Perry

    12 November 2012 at 12:30 pm

    Mike, one of my co-workers mentioned David Sedaris the other day. She was doing a job demo for our students and told us she'd knitted a hat for him, and actually met him and got to give it to him. If you DO meet him, and he's wearing a knitted hat with a unicorn horn, you'll know where it came from…