'I feel like there's a leopard in my house, locked in a room. I've contacted the leopard authorities and they assure me they are used to dealing with leopards like this, and they have a plan for removing the leopard. It will take a while, though, and once in a while I can hear it growl.' And that's all very reassuring. Even so, several times a day I think to myself: "Hang on, there's a leopard in my house."' One morning, while shaving, the comedian Mark Steel noticed that one side of his neck seemed larger than the other. After a whistlestop tour of assorted medical professionals, a consultant delivered the ominous words that would define the next months of his life: 'I'm afraid it's not good news, Mr. Steel'. And so began a journey into the heart of the NHS, as he embarked on the long and uncertain road to cancer recovery via a range of mildly torturous and entirely miraculous treatments. What, if anything, might he learn about himself - and our capacity for coping with life when times get tough - as he becomes part of a club that one in two British people will ultimately join? A frank and funny diary of one man's rather trying year, this is an unforgettable and uplifting story of getting ill, getting on with it, and getting better.

The memoirs of 25 years of political activism, albeit minor and mostly unsuccessful! Deciding to dedicated his life to eradicating injustice Mark Steel tried to persuade his mates to change their sexist attitudes - only to be called a poof; innocently wandered into the heat of battle during the Brixton riots in 1981 - to be wrongfully arrested for stealing shoes; hidden striking steel workers to defeat Thatcher's union laws; and in the GLA elections of May 2000 he received 1823 votes for the London Socialist Alliance.