Audiobook review A Mind of My Own by Cathy Burke – An Honest and Funny Memoir | Cathy Burke

A A lot of terrible things happen to Kathy Burke in her memoir, though you won’t find her wallowing in self-pity. Burke was a young child when her mother died of stomach cancer, meaning she has no memory of her. In the Islington council flat where she grew up, she shared a bedroom with her alcoholic father, who would fall off the wagon and, at his worst, become violent. When a stranger on the estate called her ugly in front of her friends, she cleverly dodged the insult by laughing. “I’m the best dancer at the ugly bug party,” she shouted and danced a little.

Burke found her tribe in the London punk scene, and as a teenager, she earned acting talent and a place at the Anna Scheer Theater School in London. This set her on the path to a brilliant and varied acting and writing career that saw her appear in comedy sketches with Harry Enfield, French and Saunders, be called a genius by Peter Cook and take Luc Besson’s private jet to take home the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for Gary Oldman’s 1997 film Nil By Mouth. There, to her dismay, she found herself “accepting a Bellini cocktail from Harvey Weinstein.”

You might expect such broad statements from a serious comedian who finds fame “embarrassing,” but they’re downright delicious when Burke delivers them herself. Her narrative, like her prose, is funny, evocative, and reliably realistic.

Available via Simon & Schuster Audio UK, 9h 30m

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