At My Mother's Knee...And Other Low Joints: Tales from Paul’s mischievous young years

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In parts laugh-out-loud funny but also at times very poignant, this is a marvellous evocation of a Catholic working class upbringing in the 1950s through to the mid-70s. Lily later became a regular on This Morning, took over the bed on The Big Breakfast and presented Blankety Blank, but has now retired. I have been a fan of Paul O'Grady for a long time, I think he's fantastic and funny without even trying to be.

And the Elephant and Castle, pub, I heard the Peter Skellern song about it years ago but I couldn't make out the words so I didn't know exactly how rough the pub was until I read Pauls books. I really want to dig out my copy if I still have it somewhere to re-read after the news yesterday of his untimely passing! Gossipy, sharp and colourful, the cast of characters in Paul O'Grady's life includes rogues and rascals galore, all of whom are evoked here with great comic skill. I only read it whilst a member of a reading group - the premise of the group being that members were encouraged to read books they might ordinarily never consider reading - thanks reading group!Lily later became a regular on This Morning, took over the bed on The Big Breakfast and presented Blankety Blank. I have always felt different and alien to this world before I even knew of these labels, before I knew they applied to myself and how I identify. He tells it as it was, rather than in his TV voice - and I like the TV voice so it just didn't make me want to carry on. I’ve always been a fan of Drag Queens, and long before there was my avid interest in RuPaul’s Drag Race, there was Lily Savage. Now I release his autobiographies are four books, so far, a good money earning business, his first 18 years took 352 pages, yes agreed a busy young life, but I was let down after this first autobiography.

I thought this was his life story, his autobiography, and was shocked when the book finished and he was only 18 years old !It was whilst living in London in 1978 that he first turned his hand to drag, developing the character of Lily Savage based upon various female relatives of his. When I was writing my book "I Need an Exorcism" I read Paul O'Gradys books, At My Mothers Knee, The Devil Rides Out and Still Standing. I'm a mega huge O'Grady fan, I love this man, his devotion to animals is just amazing, He can do no wrong in my eyes, this is a funny, sad and comical book, telling the story of Paul's early life in Birkenhead.

The young Liverpool entertainer, an altar boy from Irish Catholic Birkenhead, becomes the acid-tongued and outrageous drag queen Lily Savage, and moves from gay pubs to national television, creating something of a British comic institution en route (O'Grady's caustic drag character was a world away from safer predecessors such as Danny La Rue). I laughed so hard reading this book that I cried, and the only criticism I have of it at all is that it ended, when I wanted it to go on and on. He was best known for presenting the daytime chat television series, The Paul O'Grady Show and, more recently, Paul O'Grady Live, as well as his drag queen comedic alter ego, Lily Savage, as whom he performed in various television series including Blankety Blank (1997–1999) and Lily Live!

It's a book which really does have something for everyone and which reminds us that, when all's said and done, there's a bit of savage in all of us. I can't believe that by the end of the book he's only just reached the age of 18 and not yet got into show business. Job, chapter five, verse seven,' my mother had replied, completely knocking the wind out of his sails. I am from Liverpool so recognised the places he was talking about from my side of the water, but not the places he wrote about from his side. At My Mother's Knee and Other Low Joints is an entertaining autobiography from someone who really does have a life that is worth writing about.

Paul O'Grady, apart from being one of Britain's best loved entertainers, is a classic example of reinvention, as At My Mother’s Knee demonstrates.He also appeared in the comedy sitcom Eyes Down (2003–2004) and presented several travel documentaries. At My Mother's Knee features an unforgettable cast of rogues, rascals, lovers, fighters, saints and sinners - and one iconic bus conductress.