Martha is seven months pregnant, living in a flat so disgusting the cockroaches are threatening to leave, and desperate for male company.

Flower is a hippy-dippy, would-be stand-up comic who has a problem with hecklers; the problem being that they make her cry.

And Sarah, the final member of this boozing trio of chums, is in love with Billy - a lovely man who occasionally knocks seven bells out of her if she fails to pair up his socks properly.

This might not sound like the stuff of comedy, but in her first novel stand-up comic Jo Brand uses her sharp eye and equally sharp tongue to good effect.

With plenty of near-the-knuckle humour, straight-talking and a lot of what ladies of a certain age refer to as 'language', Sorting Out Billy is a comedy about domestic violence, stalking, infidelity and the horror that is London life.

A worthy addition to the Brand brand.

Updated: 08:53 Saturday, February 19, 2005