From a modest start on a country weekly in the Yorkshire Dales Colin Dunne staggered, via Leeds and Halifax, London, Leamington Spa, Newcastle upon Tyne and Manchester to Fleet Street in its heyday. For the best part of half a century he delighted readers of local, regional and national newspapers and magazines with his canny ability to spot - and more importantly to report - the strange, the odd, the unlikely and the just plain daft elements of human life. Whether interviewing film star Brigitte Bardot, poet Basil Bunting, or even Corky the Talking Dog... discovering the nightlife of Hamburg, the ice maidens of Reykjavik, sharing life on a beach with the models for a Pirelli calendar, or watching Antiques Roadshow being filmed in Jamaica, Colin Dunne was the man for any assignment that was identifiably barmy. And always back in the office were the reckless and the feckless, outrageous, disgraceful, immoral, completely unreliable, but also the richly talented, wildly inventive and, above all, endlessly amusing. An incredible account of the Great Days, the Glory Days, of journalism. And if you don't believe it, ask Corky.
Man Bites Talking Dog
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Disappointed
Format:Paperback
If laughter really is good for your health then this book should be available on prescription. "Man Bites Talking Dog" had me laughing out loud pretty much with every page I read.
"Funny" books very often fail to deliver the promised laughter so I bought this one hoping for the best but prepared just to be mildly amused as comedy very often requires a person to deliver the lines for the writer, this author though does it all for you, he writes the lines and supplies the delivery. Just buy it, you will not be disappointed.
Don't read it on a long train journey though as you'll upset your fellow passengers with your constant fits of giggling.
"Funny" books very often fail to deliver the promised laughter so I bought this one hoping for the best but prepared just to be mildly amused as comedy very often requires a person to deliver the lines for the writer, this author though does it all for you, he writes the lines and supplies the delivery. Just buy it, you will not be disappointed.
Don't read it on a long train journey though as you'll upset your fellow passengers with your constant fits of giggling.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By M. Huber
Format:Paperback
By Matt Huber
If you want one take on the recent state of British journalism and to laugh rather than cry, Colin Dunne's story of his life and times on the road, at lunch and at the typewriter is the book to buy.
He mirrors a working way of life that is now all but history.
Fleet Street was more than an address; it was an entire creative and, allegedly, commercial culture. It represented the might of journalism - national, regional and local, evening, daily and weekly - when newspapers first built up and then reflected the national mood; sold millions; changed attitudes; even toppled governments.
What today's reporters, anchored by cost controls and falling circulations to their desks, lunching on sarnies over the keyboard and downloading celeb copy from the internet, can only marvel at is that many Fleet Street reporters, writers, even editors of yesteryear got the job done at all, bearing in mind all the bars propped, glasses emptied and enduring fog of cigarette smoke.
From the Yorkshire dales via regional newspaper offices to the Fleet Street of the Daily Mirror and the Sun, Colin Dunne for decades lived this this time capsule of newspaper journalism while writing - humorously and always lightly - about the odd, peculiar, funny and the downright ordinary. Now he has turned his cuttings book into his own working life story. It's a cliche to say readers will laugh out loud and no newspaperman would ever reach for a cliche - so let this one highly entertained reader say it instead.
Man Bites Talking Dog could perhaps be called Life on Mars at the typewriter.
If you want one take on the recent state of British journalism and to laugh rather than cry, Colin Dunne's story of his life and times on the road, at lunch and at the typewriter is the book to buy.
He mirrors a working way of life that is now all but history.
Fleet Street was more than an address; it was an entire creative and, allegedly, commercial culture. It represented the might of journalism - national, regional and local, evening, daily and weekly - when newspapers first built up and then reflected the national mood; sold millions; changed attitudes; even toppled governments.
What today's reporters, anchored by cost controls and falling circulations to their desks, lunching on sarnies over the keyboard and downloading celeb copy from the internet, can only marvel at is that many Fleet Street reporters, writers, even editors of yesteryear got the job done at all, bearing in mind all the bars propped, glasses emptied and enduring fog of cigarette smoke.
From the Yorkshire dales via regional newspaper offices to the Fleet Street of the Daily Mirror and the Sun, Colin Dunne for decades lived this this time capsule of newspaper journalism while writing - humorously and always lightly - about the odd, peculiar, funny and the downright ordinary. Now he has turned his cuttings book into his own working life story. It's a cliche to say readers will laugh out loud and no newspaperman would ever reach for a cliche - so let this one highly entertained reader say it instead.
Man Bites Talking Dog could perhaps be called Life on Mars at the typewriter.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is simply one of the greatest books ever written about newspapers - and the men and women who produce them. It is also hilariously funny and crammed with witticisms and delicious anecdotes. As a writer, Colin Dunne is right up there with Evelyn Waugh , P G Wodehouse, and Tom Sharpe as a comic genius. Even 'civilians' - people with no newspaper connections - would find it a tremendous read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sheer genius,
Colin Dunne's ability to lift your spirits, with hilarious accounts of real life journalistic exploits, takes some beating. Simply sublime!
Published 2 months ago by HAITCH
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honest and amusing
A real insight into the life of a journalist (as it was, at least!) with some excellent anecdotes and humourous writing style.
Published 2 months ago by Andy Batchelor
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dunne it all !
Having read the book I now feel guilty for getting it free off Amazon given the parlous life of most journalists these days - how different from the "glory days" when a couple of... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Tony Farson
5.0 out of 5 stars
A funny insight in journalism
This is one of the funniest book I've read in a long time. In a very dry, sarcastic style Colin Dunne describes his career from the small Yorkshire Dales to Fleet Street, the hub... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sabina
4.0 out of 5 stars
Biting, but more so funny.
This is the humorous autobiography of Colin Dunne, a witty journalist who began his career as a sixteen years old semi-literate with a passion for jazz and soft-porn. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Laura Marangoni
5.0 out of 5 stars
you couldn't make it up
The newspaper industry will never be the same again. Thank goodness
But for those of us who lived to tell the tale of those vintage times the memories tend to be tragic... Read more
But for those of us who lived to tell the tale of those vintage times the memories tend to be tragic... Read more
Published on 15 April 2010 by N. Stack
5.0 out of 5 stars
The writing elite
I don't know how you define a Colin Dunne. He sits inside his latest book, Man Bites Talking Dog, displaying that mysterious and elusive ingredient found only in exceptional... Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2010 by G. Mather
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