Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks: The Essential Alan Coren

There are some pieces in here that I remembered fondly and which still resonate with me. Coren had a gifted sense not only for the absurdity of life but for how to show the absurdity even in everyday, taken-for-granted situations. Some pieces in here have, however, not aged well, and while the intro tries to "manage" some of his imperialist and racist attitudes, a couple of his commentaries on other nations. And some of the humor is too much predicated on punching down, for my taste. What saves the collection, however, is that Coren's target is just as often himself, and shining through all these pieces is his love of the variety and range and downright strangeness of the English language.

This was a wonderful read, just after I'd finished Alan Plater's "Doggin' Around". Coren's wit and succinct choice of words had me laughing with delight. It's hard to pull out special favourites, though I have marked them in the book, but I'd recommend Idi Amin's car salesman, Richard III's armour and the search for the all-night chemis. This last one I see as a brilliant allegory for what happens if you concentrate on crap at the expense of what really matters - something companies and governments are extraordinarily good at doing.

My recommendation once you've read it through once - make it a bathroom book!

A few good, laugh-out-loud pieces, but I was mostly pretty underwhelmed by these for some reason. The introduction was in some ways funnier than the rest of it ...

Razor Sharp wit