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270+ Works 4,773 Members 133 Reviews 3 Favorited

About the Author

Gyles Brandreth worked in theatre, television and publishing before becoming MP for the City of Chester and a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major's government. He is now a London correspondent for CBS television, presents LBC's weekly arts review for ITN radio, and is editor-at-large of show more the Sunday Telegraph Review. Brandreth first worked with Sir John Gielgud in the 1970s at the Oxford Playhouse (where Gielgud originally appeared in 1924) and wrote his first celebration of Gielgud's life and work to mark the actor's eightieth birthday in 1984 show less
Image credit: Photo by Fatimah Namdar

Series

Works by Gyles Brandreth

Have You Eaten Grandma? (2018) 120 copies
More Joy of Lex (1982) 84 copies
The Super Joke Book (1983) 77 copies
The Book of Solo Games (1983) 70 copies
Great Theatrical Disasters (1982) 61 copies
871 Famous Last Words (1979) 55 copies
John Gielgud: A Celebration (1980) 42 copies
Classic Puzzles (1985) 40 copies
Numberplay (1984) 38 copies
The Puzzle Mountain (1981) 38 copies
Odd Boy Out (2021) 34 copies
Classic Optical Illusions (2003) 33 copies
The Scrabble Book (1981) 32 copies
Optical Illusion Flip Book (2001) 27 copies
7 Secrets of Happiness (2013) 25 copies
The Word Book (1988) 20 copies
Quick and Easy Magic Tricks (1988) 20 copies
Philip: The Final Portrait (2021) 20 copies
The Book of Mistaikes (1982) 19 copies
Everyman's Classic Puzzles (1985) 16 copies
The Ghost at No.13 (1987) 16 copies
The Book of Snubs (1994) 16 copies
The Mermaid at No. 13 (1989) 16 copies
On Christmas (2018) 15 copies
Complete Book of Scrabble (1980) 11 copies
Word Games (1987) 11 copies
The Scrabble Companion (1988) 11 copies
Who is Nick Saint? (1996) 10 copies
Fascinating Body Facts (1987) 10 copies
Venice Midnight (1998) 9 copies
The Bumper Book of Jokes (1995) 9 copies
Game-A-Day Book (1980) 9 copies
The Scrabble Omnibus (1984) 8 copies
Monopoly Omnibus (1985) 8 copies
Everyman's Word Games (1986) 8 copies
Word Play 7 copies
Cats' Tales (1986) 7 copies
Teddy Bear Craft Book (1993) 6 copies
Word Box (Puffin Books) (1988) 6 copies
The dictionary of insults (1995) 6 copies
The Law Is an Ass (1984) 6 copies
The Hiccups at No.13 (1988) 5 copies
Amazing Facts About Prehistoric Animals (1986) — Author — 5 copies
The Slippers That Talked (1992) 5 copies
A-Joke-A-Day Book (1979) 5 copies
The Complete Puzzler (1982) 5 copies
It's a Joke (1989) 5 copies
This Is Your Body (1979) 5 copies
Untitled biography (2014) 5 copies
Pears Book of Words (1979) 5 copies
Juegos de Casino (1981) 5 copies
The Daft Dictionary (1978) 5 copies
Pantomime (Discovering) (1973) 5 copies
THE PUZZLE OMNIBUS. (1990) 4 copies
The Book of Excuses (1984) 4 copies
DOMINO GAMES AND PUZZLES. (1975) 3 copies
Complete Husband (1978) 3 copies
If I Ruled the World (1988) 3 copies
My Record Book (1988) 3 copies
Me! (1979) 3 copies
The Magic of Houdini (1978) 3 copies
Emergency joke kit (1987) 3 copies
The Great Games Gazette (1978) 3 copies
Seeing is not believing (1980) 2 copies
Knock Knock Joke Book Pb (1998) 2 copies
The Great Big Funny Book (1978) 2 copies
Knitability (1987) 2 copies
The Family Games Book (1995) 2 copies
Shazzam! Magic Show (1978) 2 copies
Fascinating Facts (1980) 2 copies
How to be Funny (1981) 2 copies
What Nonsense! (1978) 2 copies
My Diary (1987) 2 copies
Wideawake Club: Jokes (1986) 2 copies
Crazy Encyclopedia (1995) 2 copies
The Amazing Book Of Mazes (1995) 2 copies
Pears Family Quiz Book (1977) 2 copies
Teddy Bear Joke Book (1990) 1 copy
Total nonsense Z to A (1981) 1 copy
1000 Horrors (1983) 1 copy
Cinderella, (1971) 1 copy
Here Comes Golly (1979) 1 copy
Shazzam! 1 copy
Speckled Band (1991) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists (2000) — Contributor, some editions — 550 copies
Complete Acid Drops (1999) — Foreword — 43 copies
I.D. / Urgent Calls (2007) — Narrator — 35 copies
Lewis Carroll's Bedside Book (1979) — Editor — 27 copies
The Sherlock Holmes Miscellany (2012) — Foreword, some editions — 26 copies
It's Not What You Know: Series 5 — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

19th century (42) anthology (77) Arthur Conan Doyle (30) autobiography (23) biography (97) children's (26) crime (45) diary (140) England (36) English (33) English language (31) fiction (177) games (94) historical (38) historical fiction (80) historical mystery (23) history (39) humor (108) journal (20) language (79) linguistics (22) literature (20) London (38) math (20) memoir (25) murder (23) mystery (272) non-fiction (194) Oscar Wilde (102) politics (22) puzzles (55) read (46) reference (58) royalty (20) theatre (25) to-read (169) unread (25) Victorian (27) wordplay (24) words (38)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

Interesting plot elements and fun atmosphere. Doyle and Wilde are enjoyable, as always, though there was more of a shadow this time, foreshadowing of Oscar’s imprisonment and Fall from grace and Doyle’s embracing of fairies and seances. Tainted it a bit with sadness
 
Flagged
cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |
Love this series. There is always a genuine murder and plenty of period interest and Wilde wit.this one is harder than the others, as it is hard to think of Wilde alone, unable to read or talk, but the author keeps it moving and doesn't get you so emotionally involved that you can't enjoy the story
 
Flagged
cspiwak | 9 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |
I love this series, but didn't enjoy this one as much. It may be that the resolution is a little too pat, or it may be that in this one the author foreshadowed the eventual tragedy that would befall Wilde
 
Flagged
cspiwak | 9 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |
The Wilde quotes sprinkled throughout are always entertaining.
The mystery was, as usual, somewhat secondary to the pleasure of
Oscar's company, but adequate.
 
Flagged
cspiwak | 12 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |

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Statistics

Works
270
Also by
7
Members
4,773
Popularity
#5,262
Rating
½ 3.6
Reviews
133
ISBNs
551
Languages
10
Favorited
3

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