Janey Godley was a guest on my Just a Minute show at the Edinburgh Fringe last year. She gave me a copy of her autobiography, Handstands in the Dark, and I took it away with me and put it in a large pile of books I was planning to get around to reading eventually. It was a busy few months and I suffer from dyslexia, so I'm a slow reader at the best of times.

When I was away on a cruise earlier this year I finally got around to reading it and I just couldn't put it down. I don't think I've read many books that quickly. Her story followed me around the whole time - it was as if I was living it. How did that wee lassie survive all that and come out on top?

It's about a Glasgow that I know very well. I worked for five years on Clydeside trying to be an engineer to please my family, when all the time I wanted to be an actor. I recognised the characters instantly - it was as though I was back in Glasgow again after all these years.

Godley married into a family of Glasgow gangsters and for a time she was immersed in a very insular and dangerous underworld, which she talks about very honestly and openly.

She brings the whole world of the Glasgow working class vividly to life - their quirks and the things that made them tick. But she also suffered from deprivation. She writes about the abuse she suffered as a child - it was a hell of a thing to come to terms with, never mind write about it so candidly.

It shows amazing character to survive what she did. A sense of humour is a great survival kit and Godley has humour in abundance. It's easy to see why she became a stand-up comedian.