55 used & new from £0.01
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook (Hardcover)

by Peter Cook (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


2 new from £7.50 46 used from £0.01 7 collectible from £6.50
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 4 used & new from £10.00
Paperback (New edition) £8.99 £6.73 216 used & new from £0.01

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It

How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It

by Peter Gordon, Dan Kieran Paul Hamilton
4.8 out of 5 stars (5)  £5.99
Biography of Peter Cook (Sceptre 21's)

Biography of Peter Cook (Sceptre 21's)

by Harry Thompson
4.8 out of 5 stars (17)  £6.71
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore - The Very Best of Goodbye Again [DVD] [2005]

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore - The Very Best of Goodbye Again [DVD] [2005]

DVD ~ Peter Cook
4.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £10.88
Bedazzled [DVD] [1967]

Bedazzled [DVD] [1967]

DVD ~ Peter Cook
4.7 out of 5 stars (17)  £4.98
Why Bother?: Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling in Conversation with Chris Morris (BBC Radio Collection)

Why Bother?: Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling in Conversation with Chris Morris (BBC Radio Collection)

by Peter Cook
4.5 out of 5 stars (11)  £6.11
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 350 pages
  • Publisher: Century; Book Club Edition edition (3 Oct 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0712623981
  • ISBN-13: 978-0712623988
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 421,761 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #72 in  Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Film > Film Genres > Comedy
    #82 in  Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Television > TV Genres > Comedy

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Peter Cook may have had problems that prevented him ever fully achieving all that his comic genius was capable of, but that side of the writer and comedian is not the point of Tragically, I Was an Only Twin: The Complete Peter Cook, which is a quite marvellous anthology of the man's writings.

Cook's reputation has continued to flourish since his death, and many consider him (along with Spike Milligan) one of the greatest comic writers this country has produced. Although his public face was always the quaffing, sardonic commentator, he was, in fact, a writer who simply never stopped creating new sketches and articles for both public consumption and his own satisfaction. Many of these pieces have not been published before, and many have only been broadcast once. This collection brings together many high spots of Cook's career: from his early success with Beyond the Fringe (and his initial meetings with Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore) to his time as an éminence grise behind the magazine Private Eye.

Needless to say, all the marvellous EL Whisty monologues are here, as well as classic Pete and Dud routines, and even the more scabrous collaborations between Cook and Moore as the foul-mouthed Derek and Clive. The fact that Cook's Milligan-like drawings complement the text makes this a truly cherishable volume. --Barry Forshaw



Review

The latest instalment in the corporate adventures of Alex, the pinstriped cartoon character who appears in the pages of the 'Daily Mail'. It's been a tough year for the investment banker: his world is rocked by financial scandals and he faces a fight to keep his job. A collection of Cook's finest and funniest writings - many of which have never been published before.
See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(8)
(4)
(4)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook
76% buy the item featured on this page:
Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook 3.7 out of 5 stars (14)
How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It
9% buy
How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
£5.99
Biography of Peter Cook (Sceptre 21's)
8% buy
Biography of Peter Cook (Sceptre 21's) 4.8 out of 5 stars (17)
£6.71
Peter Cook in His Own Words (Radio Collection)
3% buy
Peter Cook in His Own Words (Radio Collection) 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£6.48
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
65 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars We are no longer One Book Too Few, 9 Oct 2002
By A Customer
At last, a collection of the musings of one of the greatest living Englishmen (albeit, now a dead one). Peter Amadeus Cook, as John Cleese referred to him. Since Peter's death there has been the odd book about him here and there. Harry Thompson's excellent Biog and Something Like Fire the collection of memories of friends and colleagues edited by Cook's last wife Lin being chief among them. This however is the nitty gritty, the dog's doo-dahs or perhaps more aptly, the bee's knees (as many of Cook's wildly inventive stream of consciousness tales included that very insect).
Here are culled examples - though not as the name suggests 'The Complete' - Peter Cook creative outpoorings, from his early reviews through to the Clive Anderson special with assorted pieces of writing in between, not quite what you might call journalism but mini works of genius every one.
Peter is dead, E.L. Wisty never managed to dominate the world but we can still help make a difference if every household had a copy of this book. Sit it in your loo and read a sketch per visit, put it by your bedside (it may help get rid of film starlets bothering you in their nocturnal lusts), just buy the book dammit, read it, injest it, spoil yourself in its healthy outlook on the ridiculous world we live in and give thanks for Peter Cook.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Really amusing, 18 Oct 2008
This review is from: Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook (Paperback)
The only bad thing I have to say about this collection of Peter Cook's work is that the cover describes it as the complete Peter Cook, and well it's not, it's would be truer to call it the best of Peter Cook. And it really is that, it's got most of the classic scripts from the Tarzan sketch to Pete n Dud. The part that I really enjoyed to the point where I was chuckling away is the latter part of the book, it would seem that Peter Cook got funnier and funnier as time passed, watch out for Sven and his fishes expecially funny given as it was from a radio phone in.

It's definatly worth a read if you have a sense of humour, if you don't I would like to recommend 'Starting to Paint With Acrilycs' by John Raynes which is not funny in the slightest.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars More For Dedicated Comedy Fans, 15 Jun 2007
By quippe (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook (Paperback)
Peter Cook was someone that anyone with any interest in comedy will have heard of. His partnership with Dudley Moore on Not Only But Also included the classic Pete and Dud sketches, which later evolved into the more foul mouthed Derek and Clive, and he was rightly celebrated for his work with Beyond the Fringe.

This book is not a biography (although each chapter is prefaced by some information about Cook and his work at the time) but a collection of what William Cook considers to be the best of Peter's work. There are certainly some classic sketches in there (including 'The Worst Job in the World', which involves Jayne Mansfield and the removal of lobsters and a Pete and Dud sketch retelling their harassment by beautiful actresses), but William Cook also includes articles and transcripts of Peter's work from a variety of sources.

Personally, I didn't enjoy reading the sketches so much as I enjoyed the articles. This is mainly because I think Cook's humour works best in the delivery and Cook's was so unique that reading his work seems a very poor substitute. In addition though (and at the risk of being branded a heretic), I think that there's a certain 'sameyness' to Cook's sketches - albeit sameyness of a surreal nature. You know what you're going to get from a sketch, which kind of robs it of its magic. That aside, I did enjoy reading his articles, particularly his sports articles (and this comes from the fact that (a) I don't support his teams and (b) I have very little interest in sport). Cook was certainly more prolific than I had imagined, and I also hadn't realised that he'd worked with both the 'godfathers' of comedy (e.g. Miller and Bennett) and also some of the current comedy titans such as Chris Morris and Clive Andersen.

Although William Cook takes the approach that Peter Cook's work speaks for itself, I would nevertheless have enjoyed just a little more insight into what he was trying to do and why it had the effect that it did. Whilst he does acknowledge the furore of the foul language and brutal imagery within the Derek and Clive performances, there's very little of what Peter and Dudley themselves thought of them.

William Cook does not approach his subject with rose-tinted glasses - he does acknowledge Peter's failures as a writer and he makes a point of saying that some sketches could not be included specifically because they either did not work or only worked in a aural medium. This is to be commended and I do think that he's picked out some of the best of Peter Cook's work.

I don't think that this is a book that can (or should) be read through in one sitting. It's more something to dip in and out of and whilst there is certainly nothing wrong with that, people hoping for some insight into what Peter Cook was all about, may find that his work does nothing to solve the mystery.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny...
There can be no arguing against the glaringly obvious fact that Peter Cook was bloody funny. Funny. Ve'y, ve'y funny. Read more
Published 19 months ago by frapatroo

5.0 out of 5 stars Message for Big Nose
Last night, in a dream, Peter Cooke came to me and gave me instructions, spiritual guidance as it where. He said I was to log on to amazon.co. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2005 by C. Mcsloy

3.0 out of 5 stars A good collection of scripts, an OK potted biography
Let me put my impressions of this book into context first:

I love Derek and Clive, Pete and Dud and the latter Cook material such as the Sven phone calls, the Why Bother... Read more

Published on 14 May 2004 by Nigel Collier

1.0 out of 5 stars the emperor has no clothes
I've always been baffled by the rave reviews of Peter Cook as the funniest man alive, so I was intrigued to buy the book to see what I had been missing. Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2003

1.0 out of 5 stars the emperor has no clothes
I've always been baffled by the rave reviews of Peter Cook as the funniest man alive, so I was intrigued to buy the book to see what I had been missing. Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2003 by Bignose

5.0 out of 5 stars 400 plus pages of comic genius Peter Cook!!!
This collection is superb- transcripts of various pieces/sketches etc that Cook made over several decades. Read more
Published on 29 Oct 2003 by Jason Parkes

3.0 out of 5 stars more than just scripts - an insight into Peter
As lover of Peter Cook's monologues and sketches, this was a birthday gift, and I read it on holiday.

What did I learn? Read more

Published on 28 Oct 2003 by Peter Wyllie

5.0 out of 5 stars This book taught me to swim!
It's not every humor collection that will teach you to swim, but Mr. Cook wasn't your typical humor writer. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2003

3.0 out of 5 stars For Fans Only
This book is probably for fans only, and a better starting place would be Harry Thompson's excellent biography. Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2003 by lloydrclarke

5.0 out of 5 stars The abject happiness of living
Sensational. Buy it, read it, then read it again --- just to prove that one man could be this funny! I deny anyone --- except the clinically dead --- to be unimpressed.
Published on 2 Aug 2003

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject









i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.