Little Britain

Written together with friend and journalist Boyd Hilton, Inside Little Britain follows a year in the lives of Matt Lucas and David Walliams - the good, the bad, the mundane and the monumental - a year that includes at its core a mammoth nine-month Spinal Tap-esque tour where Little Britain goes in search of Great Britain.

This is a milestone book that offers an unrivalled close-up of a classic British comedy act, as it happens, at the height of its powers. But it is also a journey back into their pasts, reflecting on just how they got from there to here. It covers their childhoods, family life and early comedy performances as they found their feet; their complex friendship and working relationship; and the increasingly insane world they now inhabit. Mixing memoir and travelogue to paint an engrossing portrait of fame and comic genius, Inside Little Britain is an unmissable, candid window on life inside the celebrity bubble in all its glamour and awfulness.

David Walliams: We're in a situation now where we are constantly in the papers. Reading outrageous stuff about ourselves and 90 per cent of the time the things they say are totally untrue. So we decided to write a book that would tell the truth about us - the whole truth.

Matt Lucas: For instance I read in the paper that I liked Worcester sauce-flavoured crisps. But I like chicken crisps. I don't like Worcester sauce crisps. It is very important to change people's perceptions.

First released: Thursday 7th September 2006