Just Ignore Him: A BBC Two Between the Covers book club pick

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Neither my editor nor I would have agreed to the interview if Davies' terms had been put to us, in advance. In 2009, the year of the pub fight, Davies said he had stopped drinking "because it's incompatible with two-year-olds bouncing on your head".

The most poignant part of the book for me was this line “I know he won’t ever go away, not until I’m dead. Later his Australian publishers confirmed “they would, of course, not stop us from covering any information that is available in the book. It took me to places in my memory that I’m not sure I wanted to go, my father having much in common with his father. The memories of happier times in Davies' childhood with his mother juxtaposed his life following her death, which were a moving yet tragic tribute to her. And I also contribute my thought, that when someone does have the courage to tell their story I hope they are fortunate enough to have someone who really listens and believes them and acknowledges the trust placed in them.That being said, Davies was failed repeatedly by those around him: the police, his family and even his siblings when he revealed the abuse his father inflicted on him. But the only way to have kept the genie in the bottle is not to have released it in a book in the first place. I hope that I convey that stealing is a source of regret, but at the same time, I don't blame that boy for doing that.

With the proof collected the authorities believed him, but prosecuting his now elderly father was deemed not winnable. Neither my editor nor I would have agreed to the interview if Davies’ terms had been put to us, in advance. The memoir is full of the wonderfully funny anecdotes about growing up in that time that relieve the sadness of the ruined relationships with his siblings, particularly his older brother. In September 2010, he began a three-part documentary series Alan Davies' Teenage Revolution ( Channel 4), partly based on his autobiographical book My Favourite People and Me, 1978–88.It was Katie who wanted to recreate her own childhood, to some extent, and have a large family, "but I had nothing that I wanted to recreate. Further, his discussion of the loss of his mother was a compelling and honest account of childhood grief.