Brash, loud, confident, personable, nothing has changed in Kathy Lette’s world it would seem. The queen of chick lit still spits out one-liners like pins, so it’s little surprise that the author is now embarking on a stand up show instead.

“I must have been insane when I agreed, considering I could be lying in the garden in a bikini, but my friends talked me into it, and I’d had a few.”

With pals like Ruby Wax and Sandi Toksvig that’s easy to understand, but Kathy’s still apprehensive: “It’s like giving yourself a DIY lobotomy. I mean I love my book tours and I always try to inject a bit of humour into them, but I thought it was time to try something a bit different, so that’s what I’m doing

“And the weird thing about being a writer is that you are on your own a lot and have to take up tap dancing or something. So I hope this will be like going out on a girls night out.

“It’s warm, witty and anecdotal and we can all rub shoulder pads together because that’s how women cope, by talking to each other and having a laugh.

“I mean let’s face it, we are God’s biological joke. We have a birth canal, mastitis and the menopause but can still grow a beard, so we need to be able to see the funny side of things before our eyesight goes.

“And besides, I’m 58 now but I find it quite liberating because it means I can get more feisty, loud and proud. You have that sense of entitlement.”

God help us all, because the author of Foetal Attraction and Mad Cows has never held back. So will her stand-up show be any different? “Hey, it’s a comedy show. It’s just me chatting and hoping to empower other women. It’s going to be the ultimate in sisterly solidarity because feminism is about choices and yet we still sell ourselves short. But more than anything it’s going to be fun.”

This coming from a woman with a cocktail named after her in The Savoy, is saying something. So what’s in it? “Champagne, cassis, sugar, lemon juice and a lot of research.”

She will also be talking about her autistic son Jules Robertson, now an actor in BBC 1’s Holby City, to highlight the reality of living with Aspergers and bringing up a child with special needs. “I talk about the dark days and the funny bits, because my son has no filters. So when we introduced him to Tony Blair at Downing Street he said ‘my mother calls you Tony Blah Blah Blah’,” she howls.

So will men be welcome? “We might get a few brave fellas who will be ovulating by the end of the show. We do have a male sacrifice at the end of the evening though. But maybe we could teach them a few things while they’re there, that the Karma Sutra isn’t an Indian takeaway. But then my husband (fellow Australian expatriate and human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson), is still a work-in-progress 28 years on. Did I mention that he was going out with Nigella when I met him. And I can’t even cook,” she screams in delight.

And with her latest best-seller, Best Laid Plans, being made into an eight-hour TV series now is the time to catch her. So does Kathy not regret doing this sooner? “I only became a writer because it was cheaper than therapy. But no, the time feels right.”

Kathy Lette’s

Girls’ Night Out

The North Wall

Friday, July 21

01865 319450

thenorthwall.com