News from Nowhere will not obtain personal information from other organisations, and will not share, pass on or sell personal information that we hold about individuals to anyone else. 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. This particular book covers his early life and his first jobs prior to entering the entertainment world and rather than been full of famous people with anecdotes it is loaded with humorous unknown characters that would easily fit in a Tom Sharpe novel.

Paul, of course, went on to further success presenting his chat shows on Channel 4 and ITV, For the Love of Dogs and Animal Orphans on ITV, and his weekly show on BBC Radio 2, inter alia. 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 really want to dig out my copy if I still have it somewhere to re-read after the news yesterday of his untimely passing! Personally I do not want to read four books to catch up with his life story, too many books to read.

At My Mother's Knee" features an unforgettable cast of rogues, rascals, lovers, fighters, saints and sinners - and one iconic bus conductress.

Told with pathos, love, empathy, and naturally, biting humor, the story of Paul O'Grady is that of everyman, everywoman, and inevitably, every drag act ever.

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 mean no disrespect to Paul O'grady but this is what I imagine Jeffrey Archer aims for in his works of fictions and keeps failing at it. But O'Grady (like other comic performers such as John Cleese) realised that comic creations can have a limited shelf life, and reinvented himself as ‘Paul O'Grady’, coming out from behind the false breasts and towering wigs as a toned-down (but still camp), more audience-friendly TV presenter (wisely, he retained the abrasive voice and a Scouse accent that could be cut with a knife). He did it all with a smile on his face, making a mental note to register the whip-smart one-liners that would later inform his star-studded path from the fringes of comedy to the heart of the British establishment, first as his own brilliant comic creation Lily Savage, then, triumphantly, as himself.

Now, in his own unique voice, Paul O'Grady tells story of his "early" life in Irish Catholic Birkenhead that started him on the long and winding road from mischievous altar boy to national treasure. Paul's remarkable childhood and early life is littered with a dizzying cast-list of rogues, rascals, lovers, fighters, saints, and sinners.

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. For those of a somewhat nervous disposition, like myself, I can safely say that reading these books will be an education in themselves and make anyones problems look smaller in comparison. What I received was an interesting and not surprising amusing tale of Paul's early life growing up in Birkenhead that was certainly light entertainment. It was fantastic reading about Paul's life growing up and what he got up to as a child and then a teenager, he certainly had an eventful life up until he was 18.

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. 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. 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.