'I secretly thought I was funny': how a brain tumour turned my mother into a standup comic
My sixtysomething mother lacked confidence, but has reinvented herself as Manchester's answer to Mrs Maisel Ruth Linton, my mum, is an eternally overdressed, perennially late, sixtysomething (don't ask, because she'll always deduct two years), divorced, Jewish grandmother. She is also, it turns out, an aspiring standup comedian. Her smile is the first thing people notice. But, behind it, confidence used to elude her.…