Don't Laugh, It'll Only Encourage Her: The No 1 Sunday Times Bestseller

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Kerry and Kurtan are celebrating the news that their former woodwork teacher from school has died. Kurtan becomes obsessed with discovering what happened to Rob Robinson, a classmate whom neither Kerry nor Slugs can recall. Mandy, the local "hard woman", informs them that she is setting up a business as a tattoo artist and intimidates Kerry into agreeing to have a tattoo, despite demonstrating that she has no artistic talents. Cooper was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1986, and grew up in Cirencester with her mother, Gillian, and her dad, Paul. Charlie was born three years after her. When she was tiny, her parents took her to a specialist to see if it was right that their small daughter claimed to have voices in her head. The doctors said there was nothing wrong with her. She scared her classmates by making up a school ghost, in horrifying detail, and, when the parents of other pupils complained, the headteacher had to call a special assembly to tell them that it wasn’t real. “I would have either gone into this industry or become like [the serial killer] Jeffrey Dahmer and been absolutely terrifying,” she says, laughing. Now, aged 35, Cooper is a star. Post-This Country, she has continued acting and writing, is a reliable regular on comedy panel shows, and is huge on social media for posting short clips, which range from the homely to the surreal. Now, she is about to release her autobiography. Unsurprisingly, it’s hilarious. More of a surprise is how tough a road she had to travel to get here.

I started writing. Just to make Charlie laugh, I created a character called Kerry. She was like so many girls from around where we lived, and inspired by the school bullies from when I was at Deer Park secondary. She was oafish and selfish, but underneath it all she had a big heart. We started filming two-minute sketches. The videos got zero views on YouTube, but Charlie and I pissed ourselves It was such a bleak time,” she says, now. She had moved to London after an acting summer school and had no work, performing or otherwise. The audition was a last-ditch attempt to earn money for her long-overdue rent on a crowded room-share in Shepherd’s Bush. “All these bad things were happening and it was never-ending. I’ve never felt so humiliated. I just felt like nothing. It was that bad. I mean, it’s hilarious, but it was depressing.”Life hasn't always been straightforward for Daisy: growing up in rural poverty in Gloucestershire with her brother Chaz, she had to work a myriad of low-paid and unrewarding jobs just to make ends meet. But with the assurance from her Mum that the worst experiences make the most entertaining stories, Daisy stashed away her most humiliating and ridiculous incidents to be revealed in her first memoir, and now, live on stage. Don’t miss the opportunity to spend an afternoon with Daisy, as she reveals stories from her endearingly honest and hilarious memoir Don't Laugh, It Will Only Encourage Her. Dessau, Bruce (February 2017). "Review: This Country, Episode 2, BBC Three (And BBC One)". Beyond The Joke . Retrieved 9 March 2017.

Apparently kindred spirits … Daisy May Cooper and Selin Hizli in Am I Being Unreasonable? Photograph: Alistair Heap/Boffola Pictures a b Heritage, Stuart (22 February 2017). "This Country: perfect, horrifying TV for anyone who grew up in a village". The Guardian . Retrieved 28 February 2017. Daisy May Cooper at 16, with brother Charlie, 13: ‘Mum took pictures of me and Charlie to send to our grandparents. I tried to be sultry, hoping they would show their fit neighbour.’ Photograph: courtesy of Daisy May Cooper

McCahill, Mike (March 2017). "5 TV shows you should be watching this month". Reader's Digest . Retrieved 6 March 2017.