Jo Brand is one of Britain's funniest and best-loved stand-up comics, with a distinctive voice and "quite amusing" jokes according to a few posh students she's met. But what attracted her to a career in the harsh, unforgiving spotlight of stand-up?

From "nice little girl" to teenage nightmare, to psychiatric nurse, Jo spills the beans. She talks about her unconventional mum whose independent spirit inspired her and wound her up in equal measure; the traumatic teenage romance that foundered at least four times a month; the loveable patients who, even so, tested her patience; and the horror of her first gig which marked the beginning of a career as that rare species - an incredibly popular female stand-up... according to her family.

Look Back in Hunger is Jo's candid account of the friendships, the loves, the laughter, the people and the pints that have defined the life of a woman who never takes anything lying down, although she does quite like lying down.