Sean Hughes

TV star, author, poet and sardonic stand-up comedian Sean Hughes has packed a lot into his life so far but little could prepare him for his introduction to Bury St Edmunds last night.

He was obviously taken aback by the slightly odd setting of Bury's old Guildhall but he soldiered on, reading excerpts from his poems and two novels, The Detainees and It's What He Would Have Wanted.

And despite a disappointing turnout, with just a few dozen people in the hall, the former star of BBC's Never Mind the Buzzcocks treated the audience to a top night of entertainment.

In his own scatty, free-roaming style, the roguish author touched subjects such as relationships, death, disillusionment, smoking, travel and sex and even when his topics threatened to become heavy going, his quick, cheeky wit was ready to defuse the situation.

Sometimes crude, often sensitive and cerebral, his poetry and novels are full of surprising contrasts and just in case anyone was in any doubt about what a nice guy he really is, this slightly odd evening ended with Sean taking the entire audience to the local pub.