Oh how I love Dawn French. I probably wouldn’t have stuck this with if it wasn’t written by lovely Dawn because I’m not so interested in stories around babies and the crime at the heart of this is just unfathomable to me. But stick with it I did and I’m glad, because the characters are so well drawn, the humanity of the situation always at the fore, and the ending an absolutely gutwrenching twist. Brilliantly done.

I continue to be obsessed with Dawn French and after reading the accompanying book to this live one-woman stage show from the comedian, I was super glad to see it appear for free on BBC iPlayer. After finishing up with festive content for the year, it’s always good to laugh it all away into the next year and this show is the best way to do it. Pulling no punches and perfectly happy to air embarrassing moments from the past and probably nearer the present than she’d like, I really love a good story told well with a hilarious ending, and that covers pretty much all this show. Top notch.

Lovely Dawn French is back with another memoir of sorts - this time leaning heavily in to embarrassing incidents and moments she feels somewhat ashamed of. It’s all about times when she’s been a twat, either being funny, embarrassing, or very occasionally, a bit mean. I listened to the audiobook, read by the author, so it was a wonderful listen, and is one of those books that makes you feel less alone in this awful universe.

I used to be an incredible podcast fanatic, but my interest has waned steadily over the past few years. The prevalance of celebrities picking a genre and talking to other celebrities about it got boring for me, so I moved on to audiobooks and music instead. The other trend that seemed to be a move in the wrong direction for podcasts was the silo effect - exclusive podcasts to various platforms, Audible being one of the main players in that space.

The little gem of a show that is Travel Man returned last week, and it debuted a new four-episode run with the wonderful guest star Dawn French. In case the show has passed you by, it features Richard Ayoade taking a celebrity guest on a whirlwind 48 hour trip to various holiday destinations. Previous episodes have featured Aisling Bea in Budapest, Jon Hamm in Hong Kong, and Paul Rudd in Helsinki.

I love Dawn French enormously. She recently released a new book/diary, wherein she shares her thoughts and feelings and lists and photos throughout the year, and you do the same. It’s an interactive sort of book, where there are plenty of spaces for you to add your own notes and doodles, over and above the actual space for diary entries. I love Dawn French so much that I have done two things I wouldn’t normally do: bought a physical book, and then written in it.

I love Dawn French and it’s so easy to see elements of the lady herself in the lead character of this book. Rosie Kitto is a fabulous, slightly frumpy, but cheerful and forceful character, inserting herself very firmly into the lives of an uptight old school New York family.

The wonderful memoir from Dawn French that tells stories from her life in a vaguely chronological manner, in the form of letters to her nearest and dearest - and those she probably wishes were near and dear. It’s at times hilarious, at times moving, but at all times engaging, honest, warm and showing just how lovely Dawn must be to have as a friend.

That’s the key, you know, confidence. I know for a fact that if you can genuinely like your body, so can others. It doesn’t really matter if it’s short, tall, fat or thin, it just matters that you can find some things to like about it. Even if that means having a good laugh at the bits of it that wobble independently, occasionally, that’s all right. It might take you a while to believe me on this one, lots of people don’t because they seem to suffer from a self-hatred that precludes them from imagining that a big woman could ever love herself because they don’t.

I quite enjoyed Dawn French’s first book about a family working through some drama, told from various points of view and in very different voices. Oh Dear Silvia takes a similar form - each chapter from the point of view of a different character - but the story is vastly different. Anchored around the hospital bedside of Silvia, who is in a coma after falling from a balcony, the characters talk to her, tell their tales, and gradually the story comes together.

I do quite love Dawn French, so I really thought this was going to be a great book to read. Perhaps I went into it expecting too much. I know I had waited far too long to read it because I refused to pay the £10 price tag for a Kindle book. It was reduced in price recently, and I snapped it up, and got reading.