Frank Skinner on the Road: Love, Stand-up Comedy and The Queen Of The Night [Hardcover]

"From the Trade Paperback edition."

Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner, his first book, was one of the bestselling show business autobiographies of all time - and perhaps the best reviewed. It was variously hailed in the national press as 'hilarious - often shocking', 'painfully and incisively truthful', and 'a classic of its kind'.

In this new volume of memoirs, Frank Skinner describes his experience of going back on the road doing stand-up again, after many years spent working mainly on television. His adventures on tour are by turns funny and moving as he meditates on growing older, the terrors and joys of trying to make a live audience laugh night after night and on the nature of comedy itself.

For the first time we read a comedian's account, in his own words, of how his act is put together; his return to a world of dark little clubs and the strange encounters he has there. But what is perhaps most startling and original about Frank Skinner's writing is his honesty anbout not only the highs and lows of his career, but more intimate and personal issues - male sexuality and matters of the heart.

He recalls his former laddish behaviour and also tells a love story about a woan who has drifted in and out of his life for years but suddenly returns just as he is about to go on tour. Frank Skinner asks himself: is it finally time to grow up?

Frank Skinner performed his first stand-up gig in December 1987, and four years later went on to win the prestigious Perrier Award. During the 1990s Frank established himself as a major name in entertainment - both in live comedy and on television. In 1994 and 1997 he sold-out two UK tours, the second of which culminated in a performance at London's Battersea Power Station - what was then the largest ever audience for stand-up comedy in the UK. On television, Frank has created and starred in a succession of hit comedy shows, including nine series of The Frank Skinner Show from 1995 to 2005; and with his comedy partner David Baddiel, Fantasy Football(1994-2004), and Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned (2000 - 2005).

As well as live stand-up and television, Frank has attained three number one hits with the iconic football anthem Three Lions alongside David Baddiel and the Lightning Seeds. He has starred in the West End in both Art and Lee Hall's Cooking with Elvis; and his critically acclaimed first book Frank Skinner was the bestelling autobiography of 2002, spending a total of 46 weks in the Sunday Times bestsellers' list. In 2006, Baddiel and Skinner's world Cup podcasts caused an online sensation with over one million downloads, leading to yet anohter number one chart hit.

In 2007 Frank Skinner returned to stand-up with another sell-out tour of the UK.

Frank currently divides his time between London and Birmingham - and, of course, his beloved West Brom.