Books Of The Year: It's the book of the DVD of the show...and it's great

Ricky Gervais reminded us recently, as if we'd forgotten, that language can still offend en masse if its use is misjudged.

In a spider-ridden Los Angeles garage, surrounded by half-read self-help books and the whiff of stale cat's-pee, a stand-up comedian called Marc Maron has for the past two years been taking listeners on a twice-weekly journey behind the red velvet curtains of his profession.

One of the more unusual snippets of information from the Leveson Inquiry has been that NOTW whistleblower Paul McMullan and Michael Gove were at college together...

Have you heard the one about the oh-so-clever comedian who sends up, er, comedy?

With starring roles in Channel 4's Friday Night Dinner ("You must have seen it, why else would you be here?") and in the Royal Court's production of Chicken Soup With Barley under his belt, Tom Rosenthal, 23, is a young man experiencing a purple patch.

At the end of his Fringe show Christ on a Bike last year, Richard Herring usurped the atheism of the majority of his audience when he asked them if they believed in one true love. That concluding flourish in turn has laid the foundation for this discourse, one that has a simple mission; "to destroy love".

Stewart Lee gave up stand-up comedy in 2001 after deciding that his material was "arch, cynical, tired, fake, conceited, formulaic and flat". He threw his energies into co-writing and directing Jerry Springer: the Opera, which earned him an Olivier Award, opprobrium and no money. In 2004, he began his comeback as an "alternative" comedian, and this book is the story of that comeback.

The comedian Michael McIntyre has told how a career-capping night of triumph descended into "nastiness" that left him feeling wretched at an awards event in January.