Birkenhead actress and comedienne Pauline Daniels puts pen to paper to write her autobiography

Oct 5 2011 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

STAND-up comic, television actress, musical star, stage actress – Birkenhead’s Pauline Daniels has done it all.

And the multi-talented performer can now add published author to that list after the release of her autobiography Stand Up and Be Counted, which chronicles her career in showbusiness.

In the searingly honest book, Pauline spills the beans on her personal life, the roles that have defined her career and how she broke the mould as a female stand-up.

She says she was determined to write every word herself and juggled the project with stage commitments and her role as artistic director at the Actors Studio in Liverpool.

“I had thought about it previously,” says Pauline, who is currently starring in You’ll Never Walk Alone at the Royal Court.

“My daughter Sarah and her husband used to be journalists and they’ve asked me before but I’d never done anything about it until I was approached by the publishers.

“I did it myself – I didn’t want a ghostwriter. The best book I’ve ever read is By Myself by Lauren Bacall and it felt like she was sitting there talking to me. I wanted it to be like that and I wanted it to be completely me.

“Once you begin writing, you start to remember other things and I did 89,000 words.”

From her early life, the book covers Pauline’s time performing in the clubs and theatres of Liverpool and London’s West End. She writes about becoming the only female comic on TV’s mould-breaking show The Comedians and landing her favourite role – Shirley Valentine.

Despite her stage and screen success, Pauline says the “biggest accolade of all” was receiving an honorary fellowship from John Moores University.

She said: “I’ve been honest about absolutely everything – about how being a woman in this business was in the early days, how hard it is to work your way up, the complications and sacrifices I’ve made. Three marriages is a hell of a sacrifice!

“I’ve also been honest about people that have hurt me, people who have loved me. I’ve just told the truth.”

But it’s not all serious. There’s an awful lot of gags in there,” says Pauline. If you’ve just read a chapter and you’re thinking ‘Oh God, the poor woman’ you turn the page and there’ll be ten ways to bag a man when you’re an old woman!”

Pauline’s latest play tells the story of Liverpool FC, a club she calls “my Premiership team”.

But she has another footballing allegiance closer to home thanks to her father, who passed away in February last year.

“When I was a little girl my dad said to me ‘We’ll get a pair of walking boots and we’ll get to Wembley when Tranmere do’, she smiles.

“Then we did get to Wembley for the Carling Cup and I was the first in the queue for tickets.

“It was me, Sarah and my dad and we had an absolute ball. I’m so glad he got to see it.”

l Stand Up And Be Counted is £14.99 from www.merseyshop.com. Call 0845 143 0001.