If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us An extraordinary portrait of a son navigating his way through grief and loss in real time. Funny, candid, and measured’ GRAHAM NORTON

Comedian Tom Allen, 39, grew up in Bromley and trained with the National Youth theatre. He started standup aged 22, winning So You Think You’re Funny and the BBC New Comedy award in the same year. He regularly appears on TV series including The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice, and as a host on The Apprentice: You’re Fired and Cooking With the Stars. He’s currently performing warm-up gigs before going on the road in February with a new standup tour, Completely. His second memoir, Too Much, is published this week.At the end of the book, he writes a letter to his teenage self – telling himself that things definitely do get better, and that it is possible to live a full productive gay life, with no need for feelings of shame. Tom can be heard on BBC Radio 4 in his own series Tom Allen Is Actually Not Very Nice, as well as shows Just a Minute, The News Quiz and Loose Ends. Tom also co-hosts the hit podcast Like Minded Friends alongside his comedy peer Suzi Ruffell. He left school at 18 to pursue a career on the stage and spent 12 years on the comedy circuit before TV came calling. “The comedy scene in 2005 was still quite blokey. Still very much lad culture. It stumbled into something unkind. When I first went on television people said: ‘Why do you talk about being gay all the time?’ It was because, in the clubs, I felt I had to talk about it because otherwise the audience would whisper it, use it as a tool against me. So I chose to be brazen with it, to own my sexuality.” Tom’s Allen’s new book, Too Much, is out now I’ve always loved the way Alan Bennett finds pathos in the mundane. David Sedaris also allows the incidental to take centre stage. He says: “Think about what you’re most ashamed of, then write about that.” It helped me lean into my own embarrassment.

Overall I would highly recommend this. The only thing taking it down to 4 stars instead of 5 is that it is quite short and I could have enjoyed it more if it was longer. I used to think: I’m going to live in a flat in somewhere trendy like Elephant and Castle, which is essentially just a roundabout, living the urban gay hipster dream. I’ll grow a moustache, it’ll be great. Eventually I realised that isn’t me at all, and found this house around the corner from my parents. Suburbia is where I’ve always felt most comfortable. In the hinterland between countryside and city, you have a bit more space to play. My dad grew vegetables and I thought that would be a healing thing to do. It’s very calming to watch how things grow. When I’m in the garden, everything is all right. Chapter 10 - “The things I did say, and more painfully the things I was unable to say, play over and over again on the movie projector in my head, tinged at times with terrible regret.Once again published by Hachette imprint Hodder Studio, Too Much will see the former Bake Off: The Professionals host reflect on becoming a reluctant adult, after finally leaving home in his thirties, finding a boyfriend and facing up to the grief of losing his beloved father. And I’m exasperated by that. I said, ‘Why didn’t you just get the one you wanted?’ They said, ‘No, this is fine for us.’ Even now my dad will bring Pyrex straight from the oven to the table. I’m like, ‘I bought all these serving dishes!’” He throws his hands up. “My dad is like, ‘It saves on the washing up. Don’t make a fuss.’”

Join Tom Allen, star of stage and screen, as he discusses his hilarious, honest and touching new book Too Much, followed by the chance to ask questions in an audience Q&A. My dad’s funeral had a reassuring sense of ritual, but all high ceremony is camp. I’ve always quite fancied myself as a vicar: I like the outfits, you get a free house, there’s a lot of parading up and down aisles. In a way, church is like Drag Race. after newsletter promotion The funniest and most memorable chapter recalls Allen’s first trip to a gay sauna Hodder Studio have published several comedians books since it was established in 2020, including memoirs from Harry Hill, Rachel Parris, Phil Wang and Ellie Taylor, a prayer book from Frank Skinner and script collections and a companion book for Inside No. 9. Chapter 11 - “He is right here in the vegetable patch, in the time I make to spend with my new families, in the things he said to me, repeating in my head - you can never have too much love.Aside from being really funny, I think Tom’s journey to accepting himself as a gay man and opening up to other people will be an important read to anyone in the LGBTQIA+ community. He discusses what it’s like growing up questioning your identity whilst bullies are point out your differences. This book isn’t just how he became a standup comedian but how he learnt, with the help of his dad, to stand up for himself.