As a narrator, stroppy of tongue but melting of heart, O'Grady still charms and tickles. The comic scenes with his truly mythological mum ("the Madame Defarge of Tranmere"; "Columbo in a flannelette nightie"; "Eleanor of Aquitaine with a chip-pan") can touch the hem of Alan Bennett's robe... Leaves most fiction and history of the era in the dust.

Paul O'Grady's life has already filled two excellent volumes... Still Standing is another enjoyable and colourful read.

Honest, funny and supremely readable.

I absolutely loved it.

O'Grady has a playwright's ear for dialogue, and his salty descriptions of raucous gigs in rundown pubs are a rude delight.

Magnificent … makes for colourful reading. The Toxteth riots, the rise of Thatcherism and the scourge of Aids… are all here, described with real fury and grief.

The Birkenhead wit tells not only of his life but that of his creation, Lily Savage... O'Grady has such an eye for a story and for dialogue that even those who aren't interested in the finer details of geisha wigs can't fail to be engaged

Funny, forthright and sharp as a knife ... O’Grady writes just as he speaks, with comedic barbs coursing through the pages

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