John Davidson recounts an episode in which he alarmed police and stood feet from Queen Elizabeth II while shouting involuntary expletives in his new memoir, I Swear: My Life With Tourette’s, according to a review published by the Daily Mail.
In the passage described by reviewer Mark Mason, Davidson says he shouted "Bomb! I've got a f---ing bomb!" at officers on a gate and, later while receiving an MBE at Holyrood Palace in 2019, cried out "F--- the Queen!" The memoir, published by Doubleday and reviewed Sept. 7, 2025, is presented as an account of living with Tourette's syndrome from childhood into adulthood.
Mason writes that Davidson describes planning to limit potential damage during the investiture by keeping his distance from fragile objects inside the palace and choosing to wear tartan trousers rather than a kilt because the sensation of being unclothed beneath a kilt would have been an overwhelming temptation. The reviewer characterized the book as "a superb...engaging and fascinating account" of what it is like to live with Tourette’s, a condition the reviewer said was poorly understood when Davidson was first diagnosed in the 1980s.
Davidson's memoir, listed at 304 pages and priced at £18.99 by Doubleday in the review notice, combines personal anecdotes about involuntary vocal and physical tics with reflections on how those symptoms shaped his life and public interactions. The episodes described include moments that drew official attention and required on-the-spot management, as well as private strategies the author adopted to reduce social risk.
Tourette's syndrome is a neurological condition characterized by involuntary tics, which can be vocal or motor. In the memoir excerpts described in the review, Davidson uses humor and candid detail to convey daily challenges and coping mechanisms that allowed him to pursue public-facing roles while managing unpredictable outbursts.
The Daily Mail review frames the palace incident as emblematic of the tensions Davidson faced: the potential for an involuntary tic to produce serious alarm, set against the author's efforts to anticipate triggers and adapt his behavior. The book situates those episodes within a longer timeline, tracing diagnosis and social responses from the 1980s through his later public life, including being awarded an MBE in 2019.
Mason's review does not focus solely on sensational moments; it emphasizes the memoir's broader aim of illuminating life with a misunderstood condition. Readers can expect a mix of anecdote, explanation and personal reflection, the reviewer says, describing the narrative as informative about both the physiological aspects of Tourette's and the social implications for those living with it.
I Swear: My Life With Tourette’s is marketed to a general audience and contributes to a growing body of first-person accounts that aim to increase public awareness of neurological conditions. The Daily Mail review places Davidson’s personal story in the context of limited public understanding during his youth and frames the memoir as an attempt to demystify the disorder through candid, often humorous storytelling.