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Jo Brand's a bit of a national institution/treasure these days but I've been a fan of hers since her 'Through the Cakehole' series which dates back to the early 1990s, hence why I thought I'd give her autobiography a whirl. Jo certainly writes well: her prose filters through the page and you can hear her 'voice' whilst reading, however despite this I did find the chapters detailing her childhood rather too long winded and more than a little bit boring. She also chronicles her 'difficult' teenage years which seemed to consist of dressing strangely, getting drunk and doing various 'crazy' things. The chapters which cover her nursing training and career path are infinitely more interesting, as are her sensible and down to earth views about the state of mental health provison in the country.

It seemed rather odd to end this book with her flegeling comedy career hardly getting off the ground! I can understand why celebrities do this but it's a bit annoying all the same. Also, couldn't she have included a little more about her relationship with the late, great Malcolm Hardee whom she bizarrely calls 'Graham'? Juxtaposed with Arthur Smith's excellent memoir this book doesn't really compare, which is a bit of shame really.

This was a very easy to read Biography. If you like Jo Brand, you will enjoy this book...her dry humour comes through the pages.

I was a great fan of Jo Brand until I read this book. She seems to stigmatize the mentally ill by saying they either assault her or shout abuse at her. This generally is not my experience and on the whole I have found the mentally ill to be quite vulnerable people. Half their problems are caused because of stigma and isolation from society even when they live in the community and this book does not help.

i like jo brand wich is why i bought her book, alas it is 90% based on her non performing years, indeed most of it is about her very dull childhood.
this new genre of biography is a rip off of the very worst kind, it is entirely designed to make you beleive that you are buying a book on the life of the person, sadly however what you get is the early years, the mid years and finally you may get the last years, no doubt some really clever publishing companies marketing department thinks this is a good idea, lets get them to buy 3 books instead of 1, that way we will make 3 times the money!

jo brand and the others [you know who you are] should be ashamed, a biography should be just that, the full life of that person, if you want to make it more than one book, then update the original, tell the reader its the early years, or even say "so far" hopefully more readers will start to complain about this increasingly outrageous rip off of the buying public.

i for one will not buy her next book or bother to watch anything in the future that she is involved in.

BE WARNED THIS IS A REALLY RUBBISH BOOK. DO NOT BUY IT.

jo brand is the best stand up female comic ever. her book is full of laughter and comes straight from the heart.