Simon Amstell

My relationship with my mum is probably the defining one of my life. I was a really shy kid. I wouldn't go to parties. A teacher suggested I go to drama club to bring me out of my shell, but I was too shy to go alone. So she would sit outside the drama club for hours while I was learning to talk out loud like other human beings.

My father found religion when my parents divorced.

When I was 23, I went to my dad's second wedding, full of tightly repressed rage, given expression only by my wedding outfit. I wore a suit, because it was a wedding, but I also went for a bright red T-shirt with the word 'ANTI' printed on it, a necklace with a silver gun pendant and a brooch that looked a bit like a swastika.

As a teenager, I found a lot of courage through people on the television being funny or subversive.