- Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks
Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks is a definitive new collection of classic pieces by Alan Coren, spanning five decades of brilliant comic writing. It is edited and introduced by Giles and Victoria Coren, and features new essays and introductions by Melvyn Bragg, Stephen Fry, A.A. Gill, Clive James and Victoria Wood.
This book, representing the very best of the former editor of Punch, hero of Radio 4 and team captain from Call My Bluff, is a bundle of treats for anyone who was a fan, but perhaps most of all for those who have not yet discovered Britain’s greatest humorist. It is currently available in all decent bookshops, but Chocolate And Cuckoo Clocks can also be bought online here in collectible hardback and here in paperback.
“Alan Coren was one of Britain’s foremost humorists, finding the comedy of life all around him and rendering it, hilariously and compellingly, in polished and witty prose” - The Times
“Coren was possessed of a dazzling intellect. Colleagues reeled from his spectacular creativeness” - Daily Telegraph
“This book brings together a well-chosen and quiveringly funny sample of his comic writing; from early satires, through articles for Punch, to the long-running Times columns and dispatches from his beloved Cricklewood. Coren knew his Shakespeare too well to believe that brevity had much to do with wit. (If you want to know why, just take a look at the great Hemingway parodies here.) The humour in these columns isn’t about one-liners and the best pieces take a fertile idea and run a mile with it, sparking a shower of bons mots in the process; whether it be Idi Amin’s chat-show, an Ian Fleming-style riff on a story about retired spies or the Beckettian horrors of the 3am baby feed.” - The Observer
“The warmth and wit of these pieces stand the test of time” - The Independent
“The funniest man in Britain” - The Guardian
“It was not only that he was consistently and brilliantly funny but, above and beyond that, his humour burst with humanity and warmth” - Radio 4
