Listen free for 30 days
-
Managing Expectations
- Narrated by: Minnie Driver
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Entertainment & Celebrities
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £36.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Out of the Corner
- A Memoir
- By: Jennifer Grey
- Narrated by: Jennifer Grey
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this beautiful, close-to-the bone account, Jennifer Grey takes listeners on a vivid tour of the experiences that have shaped her, from her childhood as the daughter of Broadway and film legend Joel Grey, to the surprise hit with Patrick Swayze that made her America’s sweetheart, to her inspiring season eleven win on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.
-
-
Nobody puts Baby in a corner!
- By Lady Lavender on 20-05-22
-
Not My Father's Son
- A Family Memoir
- By: Alan Cumming
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alan Cumming grew up in the grip of a man who held his family hostage, someone who meted out violence with a frightening ease, who waged a silent war with himself that sometimes spilled over onto everyone around him. That man was Alan's father, Alex Cumming. Alex was the dark, enigmatic heart of Cumming family life. But he was not the only mystery. Alan's maternal grandfather, Tommy Darling, had disappeared to the Far East after the Second World War.
-
-
A heartbreaking, and yet heartwarming story...
- By Colin on 16-08-15
-
Your Voice in My Head
- By: Emma Forrest
- Narrated by: Emma Forrest
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma Forrest, a British journalist, was just 22 and living the fast life in New York City when she realized that her quirks had gone beyond eccentricity. In a cycle of loneliness, damaging relationships, and destructive behavior, she found herself in the chair of a slim, balding, and effortlessly optimistic psychiatrist - a man whose wisdom and humanity would wrench her from the dangerous tide after she tried to end her life.
-
This Is Not a Pity Memoir
- By: Abi Morgan
- Narrated by: Fiona Button
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One morning in June, Abi had her to-do list—drop the kids to school, get coffee and go to work. Jacob had a bad headache so she added 'pick up steroids'. She returned home and found the man she loved and fought and laughed with for 20 years lying on the bathroom floor. And nothing would ever be the same again. But this is not a pity memoir. It's about meeting your person. And crazed late-night Google trawls. It's about the things you wished you'd said to the person who matters then wildly over-sharing with the barista who doesn't know you at all.
-
-
Honoured to share this story.
- By POINT OF VIEW on 22-05-22
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant Nobel-prize-nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
I laughed and cried. A masterpiece.
- By Nicola on 21-04-22
-
I Don't Take Requests
- By: Tony Marnoch, Michael Hennegan
- Narrated by: Tony Marnoch
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
DJ Fat Tony has been described as 'the closest thing that club culture has to a national treasure' and the 'unlikely cult hero of quarantine'. Few people have crammed so many lives into one: when your first line of cocaine is aged 16 with Freddie Mercury, where do you go from there? I Don't Take Requests is Fat Tony's breathtakingly candid and outrageous memoir of a life of extremes.
-
-
Brutal honesty life lesson
- By MR K R MARSH on 01-06-22
-
Out of the Corner
- A Memoir
- By: Jennifer Grey
- Narrated by: Jennifer Grey
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this beautiful, close-to-the bone account, Jennifer Grey takes listeners on a vivid tour of the experiences that have shaped her, from her childhood as the daughter of Broadway and film legend Joel Grey, to the surprise hit with Patrick Swayze that made her America’s sweetheart, to her inspiring season eleven win on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.
-
-
Nobody puts Baby in a corner!
- By Lady Lavender on 20-05-22
-
Not My Father's Son
- A Family Memoir
- By: Alan Cumming
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alan Cumming grew up in the grip of a man who held his family hostage, someone who meted out violence with a frightening ease, who waged a silent war with himself that sometimes spilled over onto everyone around him. That man was Alan's father, Alex Cumming. Alex was the dark, enigmatic heart of Cumming family life. But he was not the only mystery. Alan's maternal grandfather, Tommy Darling, had disappeared to the Far East after the Second World War.
-
-
A heartbreaking, and yet heartwarming story...
- By Colin on 16-08-15
-
Your Voice in My Head
- By: Emma Forrest
- Narrated by: Emma Forrest
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma Forrest, a British journalist, was just 22 and living the fast life in New York City when she realized that her quirks had gone beyond eccentricity. In a cycle of loneliness, damaging relationships, and destructive behavior, she found herself in the chair of a slim, balding, and effortlessly optimistic psychiatrist - a man whose wisdom and humanity would wrench her from the dangerous tide after she tried to end her life.
-
This Is Not a Pity Memoir
- By: Abi Morgan
- Narrated by: Fiona Button
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One morning in June, Abi had her to-do list—drop the kids to school, get coffee and go to work. Jacob had a bad headache so she added 'pick up steroids'. She returned home and found the man she loved and fought and laughed with for 20 years lying on the bathroom floor. And nothing would ever be the same again. But this is not a pity memoir. It's about meeting your person. And crazed late-night Google trawls. It's about the things you wished you'd said to the person who matters then wildly over-sharing with the barista who doesn't know you at all.
-
-
Honoured to share this story.
- By POINT OF VIEW on 22-05-22
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant Nobel-prize-nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
I laughed and cried. A masterpiece.
- By Nicola on 21-04-22
-
I Don't Take Requests
- By: Tony Marnoch, Michael Hennegan
- Narrated by: Tony Marnoch
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
DJ Fat Tony has been described as 'the closest thing that club culture has to a national treasure' and the 'unlikely cult hero of quarantine'. Few people have crammed so many lives into one: when your first line of cocaine is aged 16 with Freddie Mercury, where do you go from there? I Don't Take Requests is Fat Tony's breathtakingly candid and outrageous memoir of a life of extremes.
-
-
Brutal honesty life lesson
- By MR K R MARSH on 01-06-22
-
Finding Me
- A Memoir
- By: Viola Davis
- Narrated by: Viola Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose and my strength, but also to finding my voice in a world that didn't always see me. As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. They are bogarted, reinvented to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone who is searching for a way to understand and overcome a complicated past, let go of shame and find acceptance.
-
-
Authentic
- By Neena McCulloch on 28-07-22
-
This Much Is True
- By: Miriam Margolyes
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning actor, creator of a myriad of memorable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Professor Sprout, Miriam Margolyes is a national treasure. Now, at last, at the age of 80, she has finally decided to tell her extraordinary life story. And it's far richer and stranger than any part she's played.
-
-
Frank & Funny
- By John C. Patterson on 23-09-21
-
Back to the Prairie
- A Home Remade, a Life Rediscovered
- By: Melissa Gilbert, Timothy Busfield
- Narrated by: Melissa Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author and star of Little House on the Prairie returns with a new hilarious and heartfelt memoir chronicling her journey from Hollywood to a ramshackle house in the Catskills during the COVID-19 pandemic.
-
-
Loved it!
- By MillieP on 27-07-22
-
Mean Baby
- A Memoir of Growing Up
- By: Selma Blair
- Narrated by: Selma Blair
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven and behaving dramatically so that she would be the centre of attention.
-
-
Powerfully engaging, passionate & brutally honest!
- By fay mansfield on 24-05-22
-
Baggage
- Tales from a Fully Packed Life
- By: Alan Cumming
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Baggage chronicles the actor’s life in Hollywood and the ways in which work has repeatedly whisked him away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. Taking us through the highs and lows of his career, his struggle with mental health, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X-Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), every bad decision or moment of sensual joy, Cumming shows how every experience - good or bad - has shaped who he is today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage.
-
-
Fantastic
- By TM on 06-11-21
-
Old Rage
- By: Sheila Hancock
- Narrated by: Sheila Hancock
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sheila Hancock looked like she was managing old age. She had weathered and even thrived in widowhood, taking on acting roles that would have been demanding for a woman half her age. She had energy, friends, a devoted family, a lovely home. She could still remember her lines. So why, at 89, having sailed past supposedly disturbing milestones—50, 70 even 80—without a qualm, did she suddenly feel so furious? Shocking diagnoses, Brexit and bereavement seemed to knock her from every quarter. And that was before lockdown.
-
-
Engrossing story,so well written and read.
- By fin on 28-06-22
-
Taste
- My Life Through Food
- By: Stanley Tucci
- Narrated by: Stanley Tucci
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, and the perfect Negroni, he grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the recipes and into the stories behind them.
-
-
As good as you'd hoped it would be
- By Cozzer on 10-10-21
-
Sunshine Girl
- An Unexpected Life
- By: Julianna Margulies
- Narrated by: Julianna Margulies
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As an apple-cheeked bubbly child, Julianna was bestowed with the family nickname “Sunshine Girl”. Shuttled back and forth between her divorced parents, often on different continents, she quickly learned how to be of value to her eccentric mother and her absent father.
-
-
Love her, liked the book
- By Tara Hynes on 31-01-22
-
The Palace Papers
- Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil
- By: Tina Brown
- Narrated by: Tina Brown
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'Never again', became Queen Elizabeth II's mantra shortly after Diana's death. More specifically, there could never be 'another Diana'—a member of the family whose global popularity upstaged, outshone and posed an existential threat to the British monarchy. Picking up where The Diana Chronicles left off, The Palace Papers reveals how the royal family reinvented itself after the traumatic years when Diana's blazing celebrity ripped through the House of Windsor like a comet.
-
-
Nothing new or noteworthy
- By Zara on 03-05-22
-
The Red of My Blood
- A Death and Life Story
- By: Clover Stroud
- Narrated by: Clover Stroud
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A few weeks before Christmas, Clover's sister died of breast cancer, aged 46. Just days before, she had been given years to live. Her sudden death split Clover's life apart. The Red of My Blood charts Clover's fearless passage through the first year after her sister's death. It is an audiobook about what life feels like when death interrupts it and about bearing the unbearable and describing an experience that seems beyond words. Lyrical, hopeful, it is also about the magical way in which death and life exist so vividly beside one another and the wonder of being human.
-
-
My review of this book
- By Annabel Wightman on 14-07-22
-
Good Pop, Bad Pop
- By: Jarvis Cocker
- Narrated by: Jarvis Cocker
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a Gold Star polycotton shirt to a pack of Wrigley's Extra, from his teenage attempts to write songs to the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book, this is the hard evidence of Jarvis's unique life, Pulp, 20th-century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he'd rather forget. And this accumulated debris of a lifetime reveals his creative process—writing and musicianship, performance and ambition, style and stagecraft.
-
-
I could have listened to this forever.
- By Rebecca Morgan on 11-06-22
-
Why Did You Stay?
- By: Rebecca Humphries
- Narrated by: Rebecca Humphries
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Actor, writer and hopeless romantic Rebecca Humphries had often been called crazy by her boyfriend. But when paparazzi caught him kissing his Strictly Come Dancing partner, she realised the only crazy thing was believing she didn't deserve more. Forced into victimhood by the story, Rebecca chose to reclaim her power, posting her thoughts on social media, including advice for other women who might be experiencing what she realised she'd managed to escape: a toxic, oppressive relationship.
-
-
Slightly irritating
- By Sara-Jayne Bunting on 12-07-22
Summary
A dazzling 'tell-most' memoir: poignant and laugh-out-loud funny scenes from the life of actor Minnie Driver.
I love stories. I have mostly told other people's, but now, in telling my own, I realise how all our stories are connected by that great leveller of acclaim, loss, fortitude and fortune: being human.
When I look at my life from the alleged halfway point, some patterns are revealed: one, that the story does not necessarily begin or end where it should; two, happy endings are overrated. And three, happy endings are almost never the end.
This book is memoir-ish. A tell-most. Largely because there's a lot I don't remember, and a lot that's not worth talking about.
So, this is a collection of stories about how things not working out—worked out in the end. How reaching for the dream is easily more interesting, expansive, sad and funny than the dream itself coming true.
I really hope you enjoy it.
Love, Minnie x
This audiobook includes an exclusive bonus track with Minnie Driver and Emma Forrest in conversation.
More from the same
What listeners say about Managing Expectations
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KK
- 10-05-22
Beautifully written
Really hope Minnie writes more books, this book is so beautifully written. Didn’t want it to end. Daffodils was a difficult chapter for me as I experienced a similar situation with my mother, but Minnie’s warmth and love through her words was so comforting to me.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Justine M
- 16-06-22
You’ll Listen to This More Than Once
This memoir is extraordinary. Vignettes of an unusual life, the highs and lows. Minnie Driver is perceptive, and searingly honest, but she doesn’t take herself too seriously, and is also absolutely hilarious.
Listening to her reading this so beautifully reminded me what a good actress she is. I listened to it again as soon as I’d finished it, and after a couple of days, I listened to it once more.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this poignant, honest, and funny romp through an extremely interesting life.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Iain Monteath
- 14-05-22
A great insight into the life of Minnie Driver
I enjoyed the insight into the life of Minnie Driver. I loved that she read the book herself. I think a career in reading audio books is their for the taking should she choose to, her voice is just lovely to listen too.
Having only seen her on screen (and shunned tabloids) I had no preconceptions or insight into her life, so I listened with genuine interest and surprise about her up bringing, schooling, acting, self doubt, travel, pregnancy and recent passing of her mother.
I feel that the book skims the surface of areas that many may be seeking, this is by no means a kiss and tell, nether an insight in to the world of Hollywood, and that fine by me. Although gross point blank does get a wee mention, I love that movie.
P.s. people who count babies age in weeks (beyond the first month) is infuriating.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Emma Marshall-Clarke
- 11-08-22
Beautiful
This audiovook was a wonderful collectionnof snippets from Minnie Driver's life. Beautiful written and read. it is like poetry.
highly recommended
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Leigh H
- 11-08-22
Wonderful!
Minnie Driver has a beautiful voice with which to tell her beautiful, funny & sometimes heartbreaking stories. She is an extraordinary writer - deft, witty and true. I loved this and now that it’s finished I feel bereft,
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- "broadbentmichelle"
- 06-08-22
Beautiful and honest- loved it.
What a brilliant memoir/ collection of life stories. I loved listening to Minnie’s Book, her delivery adds humour and intrigue, and her voice is so soothing.
She delves into the complex relationship between a Mother and Daughter with truth and honesty. Love it.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mairi Burns
- 04-08-22
highly recommend
Beautifully written, you can tell a great storyteller when they have you drawn in and laughing and crying in all the right places. I will keep my eyes open for your next book.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 04-08-22
Funny and good writing
I really loved this book - it was really funny and good writing - she does great voices as well! Highly recommended 5*
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Wood
- 03-08-22
Brava Minnie!
An absolutely brilliant book! Listened on Audible and romped through it. So lovely to hear you read it in your beautiful voice. Made me laugh out loud and fill with tears. Wish it had been longer :)
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- VC
- 03-08-22
Utterly beautiful, moving and funny
Minnie Driver has always seemed a bit of a Hollywood oddity to me, so when I heard her talking about her book with Chris Evans my ears pricked up. I ordered it straight away and I am so glad I've listened to it, as hearing Minnie reading it made it even more poignant.
Presented as a set of stories dipping into key moments of Minnie's life, it's beautifully written and gives you a glimpse into her world and why she is who she is.
I utterly loved it and was rather sad to get to the end.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Sharn
- 28-05-22
It's exquisite
This is a beautifully written (and performed, of course) book. I just loved every mouthful.
My favourite part was Henry's birth, when Minnie said "Thank god YOU'RE here." I was very touched.