Smut: Two Unseemly Stories Hardcover – 7 Apr 2011

Review

Beautiful and filthy (Simon Hattenstone Guardian)

Smut offers plenty of Bennett's trademark pleasures... consistently amusing and full of witty turns of phrase (Sarah Churchwell Guardian 2011-04-23)

Amusingly peculiar... tender and comic... joyous anarchism... It is good, old-fashioned British humour with the lightest of subversive twists. (Arifa Akbar Independent 2011-04-22)

Artfully entertaining... The stories have a dark, knowing shrewdness about erotic mischief, young and old... As always the writing is tonally perfect, laced with deadpan as well as bedpan comedy. (Simon Schama FT 2011-04-23)

All Bennett's work seems to me a dreamy evocation of an imaginary world in which he'd like to dwell, full of jokes and queerness. These days, he seems to be getting steadily smuttier, ever more disinhibited. But more strength to his elbow, I say. (David Sexton Evening Standard 2011-04-14)

Marinated in subtleties. He's never as simple as he likes to appear ... That peculiarly British maladroitness - the perennial blush, wince and averted eye - and how adroitly it is grappled with, can make for great storytelling (John Sutherland The Times 2011-04-30)

Hilarious (The Times 2011-04-30)

In these two stories he applies his elegant literary gifts to his territory with the unabashed glee of one watching Benny Hill getting it on with Anita Brookner ... Bennett's talent for the honed quip is securely in place (Adam Lively Sunday Times 2011-05-01)

Unmitigated delight (Christina Hardyment The Times 2011-04-30)

Alan Bennett continues to surprise and delight (John Banville Sunday Telegraph)

You can always rely on Alan Bennett to capture the intricate nuances of English Life and his latest offering is no exception (Good Housekeeping)

Smut, the perfect title for this elegant little volume, is exactly what the stories are about. On a wider scale, however, they expose the hidden foibles of human nature in a way that is witty and wise but always acutely observed (The Age, Australia 2011-06-11)

Both stories are nearly structured by a master storyteller (Canberra Times, Australia 2011-06-11)

Smut is vintage Bennett, especially the voice, so unremittingly lugubrious that, by comparison, his legendary Eeyore impersonation sounds blithe (Sue Arnold Guardian)

Unmistakably Bennett ... very funny (A N Wilson Reader's Digest)

Touching, human and very, very funny (Sunday Times)

Small but perfectly formed ... will have you chortling dirtily (The Lady)

Hugely entertaining ... an absolute joy (Radio Times)

Exploding with peepholes and post-coital custard creams (Camilla Long Sunday Times)

Joe Orton under the influence of Sheridan, with a faint hint of Hylda Baker (Daily Telegraph Radio Review)

He writes about completely ordinary people, middle- and working-class, from drab places. He knows them. He grew up in Leeds; his father was a butcher. Again true to his native literature, he is almost always interested in morals, and in the difficulty of being good. Finally, like so many of his countrymen, he is a master satirist ... Bennett is casting a vote for women and, most touchingly, for people who are no longer young (Joan Acocella New Yorker)

Bennett delivers ... with great finesse (Joan Acocella New Yorker)

Book Description

Unexpected tales from the master of short fiction