Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks: The Essential Alan Coren
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Review
'Coren is our heavyweight champion humorist, over-powering as well as graceful, able to do everything, sometimes in the same short article.' Guardian
Product Description
The Queen at a loose end playing I-Spy, QPR fans arguing at the cheese counter, prank phone calls to Mao Tse-Tung, the Roman tax collector Glutinus Sinus dealing with the mud-caked Britons, Gatling guns, an Italian driving school, herons, hearing aids, hosepipe bans, talking parrots ...Welcome to the wonderful world of the late, great Alan Coren.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's difficult to express how much of a joy this collection of works from the long career of Alan Coren's is because any kind of superlative prose can only seem inadequate when compared to writing of this artfulness and quality. Suffice it to say that some of these pieces are laugh-out-loud funny, many of them you just feel the need to read out loud to whoever is within earshot just so you can share their brilliance and sheer exuberant eloquence, and pretty much all of them will leave you in a pleasantly thoughtful frame of mind.
I did find that I preferred the later shorter pieces, probably as they overlapped more with events in my own lifetime, and it seemed that age did not wither that amazing wit. When Mr Coren got older he got sharper, pithier and funnier. It's all just so amazingly well written that sometimes you can't believe quite how good it is. The targets - both big and small - are dealt with an inimitable stylishness that seems effortless but comes from someone who was truly an expert at what he did. Some of my personal favourites are about the absurdities of suburban living - like over-ambitious dinner party menus, over-competitive bridge partners, or the sheer over-optimistic hopefulness involved in just trying to make it to the theatre on time - but there's so much more to this collection than that and so many more topics that are touched upon that you're bound to find something to enjoy here.
85 pieces from across over four decades of writing cannot but scratch the surface of the imaginings of this master wordsmith, but this selection does make for a very enjoyable read. Introductions to the various decades from Melvyn Bragg, Victoria Wood, Clive James, A. A. Gill and Stephen Fry show the quality of his fans and influence. His (rather fabulous) offspring, Giles and Victoria, also pitch in with a fondly observed introduction perhaps proving, at the very least, that genius might just have something of the genetic about it.
I did find that I preferred the later shorter pieces, probably as they overlapped more with events in my own lifetime, and it seemed that age did not wither that amazing wit. When Mr Coren got older he got sharper, pithier and funnier. It's all just so amazingly well written that sometimes you can't believe quite how good it is. The targets - both big and small - are dealt with an inimitable stylishness that seems effortless but comes from someone who was truly an expert at what he did. Some of my personal favourites are about the absurdities of suburban living - like over-ambitious dinner party menus, over-competitive bridge partners, or the sheer over-optimistic hopefulness involved in just trying to make it to the theatre on time - but there's so much more to this collection than that and so many more topics that are touched upon that you're bound to find something to enjoy here.
85 pieces from across over four decades of writing cannot but scratch the surface of the imaginings of this master wordsmith, but this selection does make for a very enjoyable read. Introductions to the various decades from Melvyn Bragg, Victoria Wood, Clive James, A. A. Gill and Stephen Fry show the quality of his fans and influence. His (rather fabulous) offspring, Giles and Victoria, also pitch in with a fondly observed introduction perhaps proving, at the very least, that genius might just have something of the genetic about it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A wonderful collection of writing. Funny but also good for the mind. Coren's ability to immitate and translate makes such a good read: royalty on days off, what estate agents would make of the Doomsday book, why poetry meant that Postman Pat could not have a black and white dog. This is a sideways, upside down glance at the world. The impossible and implausible is considered as actuality with a great commentary on what is happening currently appearing magically (or so it seems).
I would recommend this book. It is a great read and takes the reader through decades of work. Sometimes it sounds a little dated, but that is what it is...of its time. It is good to see how language and behaviours have changed (or not).
I would recommend this book. It is a great read and takes the reader through decades of work. Sometimes it sounds a little dated, but that is what it is...of its time. It is good to see how language and behaviours have changed (or not).
32 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Very funny and surprisingly informative. Coren is a wonderful writer and a lot of what he has to say is intelligent and genuinely interesting as well as funny. Well recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Probably the UK's funniest ever writer over a 200m sprint
Alan Coren was so funny, so inventive and such a gifted comic writer, for many years I would specifically buy whatever newspaper he was writing for, simply for the 1000 or so... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ben Hatch
Ah yes, Punch - went down the pan, didn't it?
I wondered why Alan Coren had left absolutely no impression in a lifetime of reading the papers. Now I know
I had high hopes of this sumptuous volume. Read more
I had high hopes of this sumptuous volume. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Simon G. Barrett
Complete Cuckoo
Can Bragg, Wood and Fry be wrong. They all raved about this book. I suggest you read some excepts from it first before you buy. I was bitterly disappointed. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. N. A. Waller
A birthday present
A friend mentioned this book so I ordered it for his birthday. It arrived promptly and in perfect condition. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Stilus
I am helpless with laughter :-)
No, I'm not just helpless with laughter - I am apoplectic with it! I have to take time out from reading Alen Coren just to get my breath back. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mrs. H. V. Minor
Excellent Alan Coren
Absolute vintage Alan Coren a laugh a minute, this book will keep you amused for hours!
Published 19 months ago by Brian S.
Behold: A Bona Fide Master!
Let's not beat around the bush: pigeonholing, and other flavours of stereotyping, are an, often ugly, component of the Human Condition. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Any Two
Switzerland
Hi
I used to read this author several years ago in the UK but returned when I noticed the title and since reading have sent copies to six friends & family all enjoying as... Read more
I used to read this author several years ago in the UK but returned when I noticed the title and since reading have sent copies to six friends & family all enjoying as... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Langenburg
Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks, the essential Alan Coren
I never really took to Coren on the radio. I could tell he had a very amusing side to his approach to life, but somehow he didn't gel with me. Read more
Published 20 months ago by D. M. Harrington
A very satisfying retrospective on a comic genius
Not only is this an excellent selection of some of the best of Alan Coren's writing and of his prodigious style and humour, there is a preface by his children that reveals quite a... Read more
Published on 2 July 2009 by Mr. A. J. Downs
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