By Kitty Flanagan (Allen & Unwin) $32.99

Sitting somewhere between an autobiography and a stand-up comedy script, Bridge Burning & Other Hobbies is a collection of cautionary tales from Australian comedian Kitty Flanagan, who seems to have had her fair share of awkward encounters, dire jobs and unsuitable boyfriends.

The funniest parts of the book centre on her exes and the lengths she goes to to end the relationships. There is ‘‘Catchphrasey Joe’’ – he drives her crazy with his ‘‘Don’t go there’s’’ – who she eventually leaves by announcing she is moving interstate: ‘‘He was taken by surprise. As was I. Because I literally came up with the idea there on the spot.’’ Moving cities or states becomes her go-to break-up MO for several years.

Other lovers given a serve include a mute gravedigger named Alan, a guy who puts square ham on his sandwiches, and ‘‘Jack the lawyer’’, an internet match who turns out to be ‘‘Barry the security guard who has a keen interest in international law’’.

Of Barry, she says: ‘‘I considered telling him I was an architect. I mean, I have an interest in houses and have driven past a lot of buildings.’’

Flanagan says she rated herself as a ‘‘pretty good waitress’’ until she dropped a ‘‘lava-like lasagna’’ down a man’s back at Pizza Hut. She is typically philosophical about the incident: ‘‘I know I should have felt bad about it, but seriously? Who orders lasagna at Pizza Hut? The clue is in the title, it’s not the Lasagna Palace, it’s the Pizza Hut, just have a pizza.’’

There is also her quite hilarious encounter with Flanagan’s heroine Julia Gillard at an airport: ‘‘I simply called out ‘I love you’ as she sped past me. In retrospect that probably was a bit weird, but I was happy with it.’’

Since Flanagan featured in an advert for detergent at the age of 3, she has felt a bond with the actor

The funniest parts of the book centre on her exes. There is ‘‘Catchphrasey Joe’’, who she leaves by announcing she is moving interstate: ‘‘He was taken by surprise. As was I. Because I literally came up with the idea there on the spot.’’ Moving becomes her go-to break-up MO.

Jodie Foster. ‘‘When I was young I wanted to be Jodie Foster. How fun was her life? Shooting marshmallow guns in Bugsy Malone, tricking her parents in Freaky Friday, and being an underage prostitute in Taxi Driver. I often thought, ‘Wow that could have been me,’ because Jodie and I had very similar origin stories in that we both got our show business start in commercials.’’

In a recent interview, Kitty Flanagan said that as a stand-up and television comedian (her TV appearances include Full Frontal, The Project and The Weekly with Charlie Pickering) getting a laugh is ‘‘addictive’’ for her, and she became aware that the solitary process of writing this book meant no live audience and no barometer of funny might be.

I don’t think she has much to worry about. It’s pretty amusing.

– Sarah Chandler