Autistic Scottish comedian Fern Brady, who came out as bisexual on Live At The Apollo and worked as a stripper to finance her studies, wins the first ever Nero Book Award for 'raw, honest and moving' memoir Strong Female Character

A Scottish comedian whose memoirs dealt with being diagnosed as autistic in her 30s and working as a stripper during her studies has won the first ever Nero Book Award.

Fern Brady, 37, from West Lothian received the award for her biography Strong Female Character, in which she discusses growing up in working class Scotland and her neurodiversity.

The jury called the book 'raw, honest and moving'.

The book is praised for its candor and writing style, which is both 'hilarious and heart-warming'.

The book is praised for its candor and writing style, which is both 'hilarious and heart-warming'.

Her funny writing style and openness, praised by readers and critics, come as no surprise to longtime fans.

In 2018, when she was a relative newbie to the scene, she came out as bisexual during her set at Live at the Apollo.

When asked whether she thought it was monumental in December last year, she told the newspaper Guardian: 'Not so bad now, because damn everyone says they are. I was bisexual when it was still gross and embarrassing.”

The book also shows how she worked as a stripper while studying at the University of Edinburgh.

But apparently it wasn't that sexy or glamorous. She said that 'no one ever came in, so she 'sat in our clothes watching the television'.

“People assume I think it was empowering. One of the old clubs I worked at got in touch saying they were trying to save all the strip clubs in Edinburgh, and I thought, “Shut them down! Burn them down!”, she told the Guardian.

'They radicalized me towards feminism, and I'm grateful – otherwise feminism would have remained as an interesting theory I learned in college. I saw men there on their bachelor parties, and it changed me forever.”

While at university, she started studying Arabic and Islamic history because '9/11 had just happened and she wanted to be a spy', before finding it too difficult and switching to English, while also realizing she was too big gossiper is to be a spy. spy.

But the book mainly focuses on dealing with her autism diagnosis, something she hasn't talked about much in her stand-up.

Funnily enough, she decided to seek a diagnosis after an audience member approached her after a performance and said the experiences she described on stage “sounded like autism.”

She encouraged her to read a book called Aspergirls but she didn't, but her friend started researching and said autistic traits suited her perfectly.

'I knew I had it. I knew it better than I knew anything about myself. But a psychiatrist I saw as a teenager had said there was no way I could have it because I'd had boyfriends,” she told the Times.

“Either he thought that all autistic people are unattractive sea monsters who have no interest in forming meaningful relationships, or he wrongly assumed that the men I dated were able to pick up on my autism rather than put it through some” manic pixie dream girl' lens on display.

“A man had once called me a 'beautiful weirdo' and I knew instinctively that that was a good thing – that the 'beautiful' part would help offset any potential discomfort with the 'weird' part, if only for a little while.

'When I told all this to the doctor who finally diagnosed me almost 20 years later, she rolled her eyes in despair before I had finished my sentence. “You wouldn't believe how often we hear this from women,” she said.”

The book has been read and praised by dozens of comedians, including Frankie Boyle, Amy Schumer and Jon Ronson, the mastermind behind The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Psychopath Test.

The jury found the entry to be 'a brutally funny, beautifully written and fearlessly honest book that is as inspiring as it is hilarious'.

“Now that Brady is a hugely successful stand-up comedian, the road to success has been anything but smooth. Unafraid to reveal the dark sides of herself that most of us would rather keep hidden, Brady's self-awareness and candor about her struggles with poor mental health, addiction, poverty and homelessness are as moving to read as they are shocking.

'Strong Female Character takes her own experiences as a starting point and offers a clear analysis of why women, especially working-class women, fail so routinely.

“But Brady's dry, dark humor is on every page, resulting in a memoir that is as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.”

The winners were chosen by twelve judges, a mix of authors, booksellers and journalists, who selected the best books of the past twelve months by writers from Britain and Ireland.

The other winners were The Swifts by Beth Lincoln in Children's Fiction, Close to Home by Michael Magee in Debut Fiction and The Bee Sting by Paul Murray in Fiction.

Each category winner will receive £5,000. One book will now be selected as the overall winner and recipient of the Nero Gold Prize Book of the Year title, which will be announced at a ceremony in London on Thursday 14 March.

A final jury led by award-winning author Bernardine Evaristo will select the overall winner, who will receive a further £30,000.

Gerry Ford, founder and CEO of Caffè Nero, said: “The Nero Book Awards are a hugely important part of our program to sponsor the arts and support creative excellence.

'The four winning books represent the very best writing from Britain and Ireland and we at Caffè Nero are proud to have created a platform that celebrates homegrown talent, offering a total prize fund of £50,000.

'Our judges have selected four brilliant books that will appeal to readers of all tastes. My congratulations to the winning authors, and thanks to our judges, partners and the wider publishing industry for handling these awards so enthusiastically in our first year.

“Our aim is for these awards to represent a badge of exceptional quality, seen as aspirational for authors and within the industry and a trusted recommendation for readers.”