77453-26SWINDON FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE: IT seems strange that a man best known for shouting 'Hello, I'm on the train' into a huge mobile phone finds himself at a literature festival.

But Trigger Happy TV comic Dom Joly has written a book so technically he has every right to be there.

But he fell into an uncomfortable category between author and comedian when he appeared at the Wyvern Theatre last night in conversation with Sara-Jane Arbury.

He was there to talk about Look At Me, Look At Me!, his autobiography, or 'auto-lie-ography' which he says is roughly a half-and-half mixture of truth and lies.

So we hear that the reason his appearance in Swindon was delayed by two weeks until today was that he was held up in Istanbul for penguin smuggling and that the bad things he has done in his life were driven by Arthur the talking dog who is, in case you were interested, quite racist for a dog.

But none of these things have the audience rolling in the aisles with laughter so what exactly is the point? Well he says his fame means he 'gets recognised in Cirencester' and the pub is his main research vehicle.

"Most people go to the pub, have stupid ideas, go to bed and wake up in the morning and go to work," he said.

"I am lucky in that someone pays me to do those things the next day."

And that can't be bad, even if it is because he thought to shout into a big mobile phone.

ISABEL FIELD