Yardsticks for Failure cover art

Yardsticks for Failure

Adventures in Friendship and Fluster

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Yardsticks for Failure

By: Ivo Graham
Narrated by: Ivo Graham
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About this listen

 'A hilarious and original voice' Josh Widdicombe

'Delightfully smart and impossibly charming' Dolly Alderton

'His writing is as unpredictable and brilliant as he is' Sophie Duker

'I've got nothing but love for Mr Ivo Graham' Frankie Boyle

Yardsticks For Failure is the story of the most frantic two years of Ivo Graham's already quite frantic life, 2022-2024, two years of tasks and tears and everything in between.

The amount of stuff Ivo packs into these two years will excite you and exhaust you, enthral you and appal you, and many more carefully choreographed pairs of verbs if you'd like this sentence to be even longer. There are some short sentences in this book, such as this one. And this one. But there are some long old sentences too, sentences that take you on whole thrilling adventures all by themselves, sentences that are rich in music and memory, mischief and mourning, sentences that bring you right alongside Ivo in his train-chasing, gamefacing,
name-dropping, heart-stopping chaos of an existence. No one lives like Ivo does, and no one writes like him either. There are failures in his life but this book is not one of them. Come on in.

'Not a complete waste of his school fees' Jenny Eclair

'A trash man from a trash family' James Acaster©2024 Ivo Graham (P)2024 Headline Publishing Group Limited Career Success Performing Arts Time Management & Productivity

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All stars
Most relevant  
Highly recommend, a very moving story full of love and laughter, listened to it all in 2 days

Wonderful moving and funny

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Nobody fails better than Ivo Graham…. and yet he has succeeded at such a lot! As you’ll discover in this book, which is a triumph at celebrating the joys of friendship, fatherhood, and manic creativity.

It so brilliantly captures the breathless chaos of living in thrall too many ideas and not enough dopamine or time, air or commas. Being an omnishambolic adhd-er, I’m also cursed with way too many convoluted and impractical ideas and last minute amends, so this book made for 7 hours of hard relating and laugh-out-loud comfort. There were so many moments I was smiling and crying and nodding in recognition!

Yardsticks for Failure also contains some incredibly poignant moments, Stoppard-eqsque witty wordplay, and wildy funny turns of phrases like, ‘the wafer-thin sliver of time’; ‘Far too wet to wordle’ and ‘Disappointingly dry day’. …not to mention the guffawingly-funny image of runaway Rosie.

This book is charmingly bonkers and a masterclass in the art of endearing self-deprecation. I’m not sure if there’s an equivalent yardstick for success but with all the stories and side-quests achieved in here, and the laughter and tears it will bring to many, his friend Tom would surely be enormously proud, and Ivo should allow himself to celebrate the win. Anyone wavering over this purchase - buy it! I hadn’t seen him on Task-Master but if you if you enjoyed him on that or you love his stand-up, you’ll love this too. And you won’t ruminate with regret afterwards:)

A yardstick for success, from the funniest Eton mess

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I absolutely loved this audiobook. Ivo Graham’s narration is so natural and engaging — I was hooked and listened to it all in one day. The way he talks about friends, family, and co-parenting is both funny and deeply moving. You really feel his honesty and his desire to be a good dad. Thoughtful, heartfelt, and full of wit — highly recommend!

I could listen to Ivo all day and today I did

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Such an interesting book from one of my favourites. Did not disappoint and highly recommend!

Wonderfully written

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A very moving and heartening listen, we all know Ivo is a comedy great and hearing that bit more about his experience of loss alongside his work shows the juxtaposition of the light and shade Ivo had contended with over the last few years

Such A Good Egg

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Punchy, tender and wallops with joke after joke. A book with unrelenting pace whilst also being tender and insightful. Read or listen.

The best comedian memoir yet

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Ivo has now asserted himself in my mind as my favorite comedian. The hilarity is
dense, you must listen closely or miss the gold.

Hilarious! He's funnier than josh widdicombe

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Entertaining, honest, funny, heartbreaking, beautifully written. A fantastic listen that had me hooked throughout. I’ve been a fan of Ivo for years and was delighted when he appeared on Taskmaster. That didn’t disappoint & neither did this book.

NOT a Yardstick for Failure

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