A Mind of My Own

by Kathy Burke

Kathy Burke is one of Britain's most distinctive voices. Even as a fearless kid in Islington, she did things her own way; roaming the estate that raised her to find her own path. A place at the Anna Scher Theatre in her teens changed the course of her life, and she found unimaginable success as an actress and writer—and national fame. But the rare gift that has always set her apart, beyond the stage or screen, is her ability to see the truth and tell it like it is.

This spellbinding memoir is not just Kathy's story, but the story of her class, her gender and her time.

A Mind of My Own is funny, profound and deeply entertaining.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Memoir, Autobiography, Biography, Book Club, Biography Memoir

Audible Audio

Published October 23, 2025

Reviews

[Marc Godfrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. My only complaint, is I wish it lasted longer.

[Indieflower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely Kathy Burke, national treasure, never known to mince her words, she's no nonsense, honest and straight to the point, I love her and could listen to her all day.
I really enjoyed learning about her life, she's earned every second of her success, 5 stars.

[Petula LM · Rating 5 out of 5]

A huge fan of Kathy Burke, she is an incredible acting talent & national treasure! I was not disappointed! I love her honesty, no nonsense approach to life & of course, her humour! prob my top autobiography to date! 👏🏻

[Tom the Teacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long live national treasure, Kathy Burke.

There, now I've got that out of the way.

This started off great, and I was really interested in the chapters about Kathy's turbulent upbringing in Islington, London. Unsurprisingly, she's a great narrator, infusing the audiobook with humour and wit.

However - the later chapters just felt like a long name check of who she'd worked with, and veered off the personal aspect. It's the same problem I had with Tina Fey's 'Bossypants'. I don't need a CV, I want a bit more human insight when it comes to a celebrity memoir.

However I shan't be too harsh, and shall always be grateful to Kathy Burke for inflicting the glorious atrocity that is Linda La Hughes on the world. Thank you, Kathy Burke.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s lovely to spend a couple of hours in the company of Kathy Burke. I saw her first movie at the time and I did not know she had such a theatre career - I wish I had seen some of her work.

[Tina D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Kathy Burke. It was great to spend a few hours in her company as she read her autobiography.

It’s light touch, a swift run through major life events studded with a mix of funny and/or poignant vignettes and a few celeb moments. Where it gets a little more reflective is around issues of being a working class female actor/director and matters of death and loss. She briefly introduces topics like what it’s like to walk through life not meeting traditional beauty standards . And being a woman who’s not interested in marriage and kids. I’d have loved to hear more on these matters and I wonder if this is something she’ll write more about in the future. Someone in the book asks her why she’s not writing plays about women and I’d like to know the answer to that. So I guess the format didn’t quite deliver for me - this is a woman with loads to say and I wanted more. It’s maybe that she’s just got really good boundaries and knows where she wants to draw the line for her own safety and mental well being. Have to respect that.

I enjoyed the regular references to food, memories clearly attaching themselves to dishes served up in various households throughout her life. And lots of chats with London cabbies, delightful. And bigging up her favourite people, nice to know who she likes (and doesn’t!). The image of her cycling about London and reading books and her cat (we could definitely have heard more about him) - she’s basically who I want to be when I grow up.

Gawn yersel’ Kathy, carry on hen, carry on.

[Becky Cann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every single second and didnt want it to end!

[Claire P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good read.... always been a fan! Interesting to learn about her childhood and how she got into acting and directing as well as learning about the varied work she's been involved in. When reading the book, you can just imagine her saying it out loud in her accent and with her mannerisms! 🤣 She says it as it is! 👍 The disappointing part is it ends when she's in her 40's rather than being up to her current age.

[Emily B · Rating 5 out of 5]

So enjoyable! Even better listening to Kathy read it herself. I keep recommending this to every Kathy Burke fan

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous!

Did the Audiobook, like having a conversation with Ms Burke.

[Racheal Giuliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I urge you to listen to this as an audiobook. I felt like I was having a catch up with an old mate and never wanted it to end. Great book with great stories

[Mrs J · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 I really like Kathy and especially enjoyed the stories from her childhood. Once she begins acting there are a lot of names and I mean a lot. I didn't take it as name dropping she's just chatting about her life and all the people but I quickly lost the thread of who she was on about - probably more a "my learning style" thing than a "her" thing. I liked a lot of her anecdotes and LOVED the short chapters. Towards the end I realised we were still in the 90s and there were hardly any pages left so literally 25 years are missing from it and I personally would have loved to know what happened next even if it was less showbiz. Harry Enfield gets very little focus which I found odd, definitely a story there but not one she's willing to share.

[Christian M. T · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audiobook review) A truly facsinating listen from a brilliant comedian, actor and national treasure!... As you may expect from Kathy, this is an unfiltered, candid and an hilairious account of her tales, tribulations and ultimately her success through it all..... and there is so much more I wanted to know!..... 'Gimme, gimme, gimme!' ;)

[Scarlet Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Kathy Burke and really wanted to love this book but found it very tedious by the end. Kathy’s chapters about her childhood, her family and school life I really enjoyed but after that it felt like an IMDb entry. She’s obviously a private person but given it’s a memoir, I wanted a bit more than just what she had acted in and with whom.

[Fifi · Rating 5 out of 5]

*audiobook narrated by Kathy Burke*

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good, I just like Kathy so it was a fun read.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could listen to KB all day

[Mr K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honest and moving listen.

[Francis Pellow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heard an interview with Kathy Burke that made me realise I had overlooked her great qualities having only seen her broadest comic performances. The book was very good. Kathy is open and honest with her stories given the perfect amount of time before moving on.

[Julie Vincent-Geoffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish it was longer.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fucking Brillant 🥰🥰

[KathVBtn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best things I've listened to - Kathy Burke's unique delivery of her life story is an absolute must-listen to any fans of her work, of the 1980s comedy scene, of independent film making or just as a fascinating look at how life was in the 70s and 80s. The story takes us from Kathy's earliest years through to her Anna Scher years, the chance she got to travel the world with Joe Strummer and the Clash, her first TV and film productions, meeting Rik Mayall and the Comic Strip, working with French and Saunders- and so much more. Although there were of course sad times and disappointments along the way, Kathy has stayed very true to herself and what she wants- and this comes through loud and clear on every page.
After listening to this, I looked up some of the old TV plays that she mentioned. 'Amongst Barbarians' is available on Youtube and its well worth a watch, thanks Kathy for talking about it so passionately.

[Mike Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kaff’s facets: a rather superior celebrity memoir, this - and to be expected for these days, Ms Burke is as well-known for her writing and directing as she is for acting.

It’s warmly funny, self-effacing and the opposite of the usual aggrandisement; rather this than the ghosted ‘autobiography’ of a 22-year-old whose life began and ended on X Factor. Burke conjures as much farce and surrealism out of the lunacies of ‘the business’ as she does pathos from a motherless child largely reared by her not much older brothers since her father proved to be a bit useless and drunken.

One suspects there’s more sadness there than she’s saying, but it’s her choice and she keeps close control lest anyone start to pity her.

Best are the comic turns: teaming up with James Dreyfus, pre-Gimme, to annoy a prissy director, earning them both trips to “cunt corner”; Ray Winstone telling a method-acting Charlie Creed-Miles to go down the shop for some fags, and Kathy following suit, because his character was lower status in Nil By Mouth; or deciding when a director slagged her off to “take it on the chins.” Best is when, post Cannes win, she becomes irritated by the deluge of offers, “and I just wanted to get back to the theatre and write some fucking plays.” Mais oui, Madame.

From Lynda La Hughes to Queen Mary I taking in Perry the teenager and AbFab’s belligerent magazine executive Magda en route, she’s certainly got range. Earthy is a term of approval rarely heard these days, but Our Kaff has it in spades. More, please, Mrs!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopping at 72% listened to up to the Artsy-Fartsy chapter (if I decide to pick this up again.)

I’m unmotivated to listen to anymore atm.

I enjoyed the early chapters where Kathy talks about growing up in Islington. When I was living in north London and used to stay with a friend in 1989/1990 I’ve realised I was actually only a few minutes walk around the corner from Kathy’s family home.

What a turbulent childhood, but with many positive moments of kindness and neighbourliness and those brothers were superheroes! Unfortunately now I feel like she’s just going through her CV and I’m bored.

[Bren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pre ordered a signed copy as I love her so much and knowing we seemed to have had a very similar childhood background. The beginning of the book I thoroughly enjoyed and laughed a lot and I could relate to lots of things she wrote about, however the second half of the book I was disappointed as all that appeared to have been written about were mostly plays that she had appeared in with many names mentioned who probably meant something to her but I wouldn't think anyone else. Overall rather disappointing I'm afraid.

[Katie Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed, what a hun

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

An honest and open autobiography with plenty of juicy details, Kathy Burke brings a unique perspective from within show business. Navigating a world which remains tough for women, especially working class women, she demonstrates her savvy approach to the rejections on the road to success, with the vulnerability she hid finally able to surface in her own words. Plenty of celebrities are damned by fainter praise but that tiff with Helena Bonham-Carter is dealt with head-on and comes with added extras, which sums up all the tableaux Burke presents.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think an autobiography has ever made me laugh and cry in such equal measure. a raw and beautiful account of Kathy's life up until her early 40s. As someone of a similar age who has watched her on TV since the beginning of her career, it was interesting to read of all of her writing and directing work too. I love genuine people who fill the criteria of "what you see is what you get" and KB does this 100%.

[N Dzerins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always regarded Kathy as the undisputed Queen of the Working Class and this just reaffirmed it. I often dislike autobiographies as no one really wants to meet their heroes and so often you find out they’re just another rich brat who got lucky off family connections, whereas Kathy is authentically, unapologetically and proudly herself and got everything she deserved in life through hard graft. An outstanding story told in a touching and hilarious way.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to Kathy narrating her wonderful memoir via the Libby library app. This was a great listen, open, honest, full of humour, heart and salty language that had me hooked from the first chapter. What a refreshing and brilliant outlook on life! Loved it!