Just Ignore Him: A BBC Two Between the Covers book club pick

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I’ve quoted from the transcript at some length to convey the awkwardness of the moment and the bizarre premise of the whole interview. The ultimate Valentine's Day countdown - here are 10 romantic gestures to help sweep your partner off their feet!

Although much of the memoir is depressing it isn't too intense all the way through as Alan's trademark wry sense of humour is there throughout. I feel this should be read by everyone to be made aware of the effects abuse can have on people and how it is scarily normal to not realise what you have experienced is abuse.If people can't talk to others then they don't always realise something is wrong and then they don't question the abuser. To others his life appeared comfortably middle class, 2 siblings, nice house, good school, all the material things, but on the inside things were very different. Despite initially voting for Jeremy Corbyn to be party leader, when being interviewed by Radio Times alongside fellow comedian Jo Brand regarding the broadcast of his Channel 4 sitcom Damned (which coincided with the 2016 Labour leadership election), Davies supported Owen Smith's leadership bid, saying Corbyn was an ineffective Leader of the Opposition. This couldn’t be further from the truth in looking back at Alan Davies’ childhood in his latest book, Just Ignore Him.

Alan Davies, the English stand-up comedian, actor, quiz show panellist and author, has written a new book, Just Ignore Him – a memoir of his childhood in which some horrible things happen that reverberate through his whole life. I had no idea that his mother had died when he was six, or that his father had sexually abused him, as well as emotionally manipulating him and his siblings.When Spectrum was offered the interview, there were no restrictions on what could be asked – indeed, the publicist's letter explicitly refers to "the abuse from his father" whom Davies years later "takes to court". Through even the joyous and innocent memories, the pain of Davies's lifelong grief and profound betrayal is unfiltered, searing and beautifully articulated.

In fact it wasn’t until many years later, when his step mother gave Alan a bag full of pornographic pictures of naked teenage boys engaged in sexual act, that Davies plucked up the nerve to lay the ghastly childhood trauma by going to report the abuse to the police.I found it very, very difficult and it wasn't cathartic, but I took as much care as I have over anything really.