Graham Linehan has written a book charting his career in comedy co-writing Father Ted and The IT Crowd and more and also his recent activity as a critic of trans rights. The book will be called Tough Crowd and will be published on October 12.

It is subtitled "How I Made And Lost A Career In Comedy". 

Linehan revealed the news during a gig at the Comedy Unleashed club in Bethnal Green, London, on Tuesday night. This was his first gig since the Edinburgh Fringe in August where he was due to appear at a Comedy Unleashed night until two successive venues dropped the booking. Linehan eventually performed outside the Scottish Parliament.

He said that an earlier working title of the memoir was "And now, we move on, to liars" – a line said by Father Ted Crilly (Dermot Morgan) when he accepts a gong at the Golden Cleric Awards in Father Ted.

Linehan also said onstage that the book will “explain my situation and why I do the things I do”.

Linehan has recently been dipping his toes into stand-up after he lost comedy writing work following his statements about trans rights. There had been due to be a musical version of Father Ted but at the moment that does not appear to be going ahead.

The book features supportive quotes from chat show host Jonathan Ross and IT Crowd star Richard Ayoade. Ross wrote: "A must-read. Funny and utterly compelling". Ayoade wrote: "Graham Linehan has long been one of my favourite writers - and this book shows that his brilliance in prose is the equal to his brilliance as a screenwriter."

There will also be an audiobook.

Pre-order Tough Crowd here.