Bestselling author of The Spoon Stealer brings more of her sharp Cape Breton wit to the follow-up non-fiction collection to Leacock–longlisted Are You Kidding Me?!

I Kid You Not! is a follow-up to bestselling author Lesley Crewe’s first hit column-and-essay collection, Are You Kidding Me?! Here Lesley is hilarious and insightful as ever, giving us her take on everything from hockey to wildlife to the ache of missing our ancestors in ninety essays. She shares details of her proposal for the Mere Mortal Awards (Best Director goes to the “poor, long-suffering volunteer who organizes the parking lot at the Legion during the annual county fair”), whether she’s used the pandemic as an opportunity to write more (“Piss off and leave me alone. I have a family-sized bag of M&M’s to finish”), and what it’s like to live with anxiety (“I’d much rather say I have the collywobbles or jim-jams.”) Threaded throughout the book is the thrum of delight and deep love Lesley feels at becoming a grandmother to “baby blueberry” in early 2020. Lesley’s columns have brought joy to readers for decades—I Kid You Not! will ensure that joy sustains for decades to come.

Lesley Crewe is the Globe and Mail – bestselling author of thirteen novels, including Nosy Parker, which was named one of Indigo's Top 100 Books of 2022, The Spoon Stealer, longlisted for Canada Reads 2022, Beholden, Mary, Mary, Amazing Grace, Kin, and Relative Happiness, which was adapted into an award-winning feature film. She has also published two collections of essays, the Leacock — longlisted Are You Kidding Me?! and I Kid You Not! Lesley lives in Homeville, Nova Scotia. Visit her at lesleycrewe.com.

Lesley Crewe's profile page