08-28-23: Here's the identical flip side: UK humorists --- decades ago, sharp and enviable --- now calcified, auto-mocking a long-extinct "Tory establishment"... and the pathetic results:
08-28-23: Here's the identical flip side: UK humorists --- decades ago, sharp and enviable --- now calcified, auto-mocking a long-extinct "Tory establishment"... and the pathetic results:
It is no coincidence that when Alan Coren --- the funniest man (writer) in the 20th century, as far as I can tell --- left Punch magazine, it did not have long to live, afterwards.
Start with The Essential Alan Coren [1938-2007], Edited and Introduced By Giles [1969- ] and Victoria Coren [Mitchell, 1972- ], with further Introductions by Melvyn Bragg [1939- ], Victoria Wood [1953-2016], Clive James [1939-2019], A.A. [Adrian Anthony] Gill [1954-2016], and Stephen Fry [1957- ]; Canongate Books (paperback 2008-2009).
The Introduction by Giles and Victoria is far superior to anything else written about Coren, and ditto for about 75% of anything I've eve read.
These are additional anthologies, previously published and notably flawed:
1) The Alan Coren Omnibus, Robson Books (1996 paperback);
2) The Best of Alan Coren, Robson Books Ltd. (1980 hardcover).
The problem is that Robson was a schlock outfit that spent next to nothing on quality book materials (paper, etc.).
And of course, if you read Giles and Victoria first, you'll run into the same stories that first appeared in the Omnibus and The Best Of.
Take your time reading them. As they say about rest estate, they're not making any more of it, Alan having passed away, fortunately before he could witness what an ideological successor to Hitler's totalitarianism the UK has become.
08-28-23: Here's the identical flip side: UK humorists --- decades ago, sharp and enviable --- now calcified, auto-mocking a long-extinct "Tory establishment"... and the pathetic results:
https://unherd.com/2019/07/how-private-eye-lost-its-bite/?=refinnar
Interesting read. Brits are (were?) masters of satire.
It is no coincidence that when Alan Coren --- the funniest man (writer) in the 20th century, as far as I can tell --- left Punch magazine, it did not have long to live, afterwards.
Start with The Essential Alan Coren [1938-2007], Edited and Introduced By Giles [1969- ] and Victoria Coren [Mitchell, 1972- ], with further Introductions by Melvyn Bragg [1939- ], Victoria Wood [1953-2016], Clive James [1939-2019], A.A. [Adrian Anthony] Gill [1954-2016], and Stephen Fry [1957- ]; Canongate Books (paperback 2008-2009).
The Introduction by Giles and Victoria is far superior to anything else written about Coren, and ditto for about 75% of anything I've eve read.
These are additional anthologies, previously published and notably flawed:
1) The Alan Coren Omnibus, Robson Books (1996 paperback);
2) The Best of Alan Coren, Robson Books Ltd. (1980 hardcover).
The problem is that Robson was a schlock outfit that spent next to nothing on quality book materials (paper, etc.).
And of course, if you read Giles and Victoria first, you'll run into the same stories that first appeared in the Omnibus and The Best Of.
Take your time reading them. As they say about rest estate, they're not making any more of it, Alan having passed away, fortunately before he could witness what an ideological successor to Hitler's totalitarianism the UK has become.