Amanda Barrie, the iconic Cleo in Carry on Cleo and much-loved Alma in Coronation Street, was born in 1935, above her grandfather’s tailor shop in Ashton-Under-Lyne, during a ferocious thunderstorm. And ever since her journey through life has been a stormy one.

From a wartime childhood to her expulsion from two schools to running away to London aged 13, later becoming a Soho showgirl alongside Barbara Windsor in the 1950s, to rising from the chorus to star in the West End and become something of a national treasure on stage and screen.

In her memoir, Amanda explores her struggle to come to terms with who she really is and why she kept that side of her a secret for most of her adult life, and how she continued, right through her Corrie years, to fear that she would lose her job and her home if the truth became known.

For the first time, Amanda tells the full story of how she met her wife, novelist Hilary Bonner, fell in love, overcame all manner of difficulties, and built a new life together.