This collection manages to retain Long's spirit while also showing another side to her - it's sadder, slower, angrier, and at times more futile than her stand-up persona, which even in its darkest places has always carried the charm of hope and the potential for joy. Josie’s stories are like her comedy – beautifully observed, strange, good-hearted, unsettling and truly funny.

It is something that I’ve really, really put so much into and there’s a chance that people are going to fucking read it!The book is a collection of snapshots that range from romantic to rousing, dystopian to hopeful, satirical to gut-wrenching. As is always the case with a collection of stories, I connected more with some than others but I truly enjoyed reading them all - which is quite rare for me. Even though Josie Long has had a 20-odd-year-long career in the arts, she still finds it hard to believe that she has written a book. Her lastest Fringe show, Eleanor Morton Has Peaked, enjoyed a sell-out run and will be on tour in 2023.

I'd highly recommend Because I Don't Know What You Mean and What You Don't, especially if you're after a dark and intriguing collection of short stories which make you think. It will be interesting because I don’t drive yet, so if somewhere is not easily accessible by train it’s like this magic world to me. I’d had my kids and that was so much a part of my life and I care so much about politics I thought it had to be things that I talk about. Canongate has snapped up Because I Don’t Know What You Mean and What You Don’t by British comedian Josie Long, a "refreshingly frank" collection of short stories.But winning the BBC New Comedy Award at 17 and the Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Fringe aged just 24, stand-up proved all-encompassing. A stand-up performer since the age of 14, Long has long been known for her golden retriever persona. There’s a Dostoyevsky quote, if that doesn’t sound too pretentious: ‘Low ceilings and tiny rooms cramp the soul and the mind. Because I Don't Know What You Mean And What You Don’t is due to be published next year, with publishers Canongate saying: ‘Each tale paints a life in miniature and offers an escape chute from the catastrophes of modern life.

Before, a lot of my sadness came from the fact that I thought I was driving a different kind of car that was broken. I’m hoping it will mean when I come back to writing a new show it will give me more strings to my bow there because you don’t ever want to get into a rut, creatively. She is Miranda-July-good, and I hope fans of Nicola Barker, Sheila Heti, Kelly Link, Nicole Flattery and David Sedaris will love this. And this is from someone who doesn’t tend to be a fan of short stories - ten “unnecessary” pages of context and detail is absolutely my bag! But it's also a pure encapsulation of her politics: at heart it's a book of frustration about the social inequalities and environmental catastrophes of late capitalism, and how these play out in our intimate lives, shading our sexual, personal or familial relations.I live or die for feedback, which means I’m so excited my stories are finally out there, and can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks.

Some of them are downright upsetting and they all address uncomfortable issues with style, tension and resolve. Each story is from the point of view of a character whose distinct flaws or insecurities are explored through the interactions with other characters and their own internal monologue. Standouts - in the sense that I remember them most - are the story in which a woman's abusive former partner moves nearby with his new wife and child; the young boy torn between two sides of his family; the two stories Poets Rise and Poets Rise Again, which can't really be adequately described and need to be read.So in that story, the woman finds this little scrubby bit of land and I really wanted that to be incredibly meaningful to that character, where even just seeing one beaten up fox is so beautiful it makes her feel she could have more from life. We zoom into someone's life, stay with them for a short period and then fly off to see someone else's life.