I bought this book because I had already read The Timewaster Letters and Return of the Timewaster Letters, both of which are hilarious. I also had the great good fortune to catch some of the Radio Four serialisation of this book with Paul Whitehouse as Robin Cooper, and it had me in stitches.
The book is a lovely thing. It starts where the Timewaster Letters finishes, with Robin being sacked from his job for writing letters on company time. It follows his trials and tribulations through the year, attempting to get a new job, exchanging visits with his Swiss German pen friend Gunther, and dealing with his mother's fling with an explorer called Gerald.
I thought it was a little weaker than the letters books, mainly because it was the serious replies in the letters books that made them so sublimely funny and you don't really get any of that counterpoint here. It is however, well worth reading and in places had me absolutely crying with laughter.
The episodes with Smithie the wood pigeon were particularly wonderful and turn into one of the key themes of the book, along with Gunther and his mysterious 'house handles'. I also loved that we got to meet more of the other characters in Robin's surreal world, his wife, Rita, his friend Tony and Millie the tramp to name but a few.
I hope there are more diaries to come, and this was well worth the investment.
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