Kathy Burke says motherhood was never her "true heart's calling"

Kathy says in the book: "I'd often thought about having a baby. I was in my late 30s, so the clock was ticking, but it wasn't something I was crying out for. I (had) a short broody spell in my early 30s, but wasn't interested in having a child with the person I was with at the time."

She later discovered a blood condition meant she could not have children and revealed she had suffered a miscarriage.

Kathy added: "Having a baby had never been my true heart's calling.

"I've had lovely relationships with the kids in my life, but I'm always happier once I hand them back. And much the same can be said for romantic relationships."

The book charts the actress' journey from an Islington council flat to the Cannes Film Festival and beyond.

Kathy also tells how she and her two brothers were raised by their alcoholic father after their mother's death when she was two. Food and money were often scarce, but she found an escape through drama school and landed her first major role in the 1982 borstal film Scrubbers.

As a teenager, Kathy recalled her punk years, including meeting Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten outside the Hope and Anchor pub.

She said: "He looked over from the crowd and said: 'Hello, little girl.' Nervous and keen to impress, I thought hard before replying: 'F*** off, Johnny'.

"It earned me a laugh from him and his pals."

Before fame, Kathy wrote and staged her own play, Mr Thomas, in 1990, handing a script to actor Ray Winstone in a pub.

She added: "He called me the next day, saying: 'Did you write that? All on your own?'"

Ray went on to star in the play, which led to their later collaboration on Nil by Mouth.

When Kathy won Best Actress at Cannes in 1997 for Nil by Mouth, she was stunned.

Her other screen credits include television work on Absolutely Fabulous, Kevin and Perry Go Large and the sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme, in which she starred with James Dreyfus.

Kathy said: "I loved playing Lindy alongside James' Tom. They were such ridiculous characters with a mix of sweet ignorance and acid awareness."

Speaking about her life away from acting, Kathy explained she now prefers directing.

She said: "I used to love acting so much, but the feeling I'd get in my tummy when playing certain roles was dissipating.

"The best analogy I came up with was acting was like being a footballer and directing was being the coach."