Arthur Smith's opening line at hundreds of stand-up gigs has been: "My name is Arthur Smith, unless there's anybody here from the Streatham tax office. In which case, I'm Daphne Fairfax."

In fact, he is neither Daphne nor Arthur. Friends and family know him as Brian.

One of the alternative comedians who shook up light entertainment in the Eighties and Nineties, Arthur (and Brian) is also a broadcaster, an opening bat for Grumpy Old Men, a West End playwright and a guest on innumerable radio and TV panel shows.

In My Name Is Daphne Fairfax, Smith reflects on the nature of comedy and his days as a road sweeper, an English teacher, a failed rock star, a boozed-up sexual adventurer and an intensive-care patient who has been told never to drink again.

Moving and mocking, his memoir incorporates a tender tribute to his parents, a visit to Colditz with his PoW father and a vigorous account of the peculiar business of being alive.