Humour
A choice of humorous books
Nancy Mitford would not call them ‘toilet books’, that’s for certain. Loo books? Lavatory books? One or two people I…
Say Cheese
Like many of my generation I was enchanted by the surrealistic irreverence of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, until I overheard…
Killing jokes
We’re now so eager to take offence that humour is almost impossible
The sound of nervous laughter
It isn’t very often that a writer’s work is so striking that you can remember exactly where and when you…
Dear Mary
Q. I have three spare bedrooms in London and I welcome friends to come and stay. Unfortunately, some of these…
Dear Mary
Q. I am always making or receiving phone calls which get cut off. When I ring the person back their…
Dear Mary
Q. Is there a tactful way to keep one social offer on hold while waiting to see if you have…
Dublin diversion
On his deathbed in Dublin in the spring of 1966, Flann O’Brien must have been squiffy from tots of Paddy.…
Dear Mary
Q. At a private screening of a documentary about the artist David Bomberg, a woman sitting near me in the…
Ship of fools
Eco-warriors stranded in the Antarctic! It’s too good to be true
Meet the parents
Woolley Grange is a child-friendly country house hotel that seems, at first, entirely monstrous — a grey Tudor house in…
Getting the claws out
The New Yorker has always had a peculiar affinity with cats, perhaps because they have a lot in common —…
Who’s up, who’s down
‘Nothing’s funny any more’ has become the daily mantra of this magazine’s cartoon editor, Michael Heath. Thanks to Leveson, political…
Strong meat
Fans of Count Arthur Strong (and yes I know he’s so Marmite you could spread him on a cheese sandwich)…
Too many Cooks…
It’s no joke, writing about comedians. Their work is funny, their lives are not. Rightly honouring the former while accurately…
A selection of humorous books
Books do furnish a room, and quirky books for Christmas do furnish an enormous warehouse somewhere within easy reach of…
My 50 weddings
The lessons of a perpetual guest
Low life
This time last year the postman delivered a picture postcard depicting a village square in Provence. The photograph on the…
Dear Mary
Q. Is there a polite way of halting a wannabe novelist from reading his oeuvre aloud to an unwilling audience?…
Diary
The pilot refuses to get going until everyone is seated and quiet. When we take off there are raucous cheers.…
Dear Mary
Q. I know this seems petty but last year, on our villa holiday, my brother-in-law always took the best chair…
‘Correct names’
In a very rum letter to the Daily Telegraph, the Mother’s Union of all people joined with some other bodies…
Dear Mary
Q. Regarding the writing of ‘no presents’ on an invitation (Dear Mary, 6 July), my own experience is that many…
dear mary your problems solved
Q. I have far too many friends to be able to invite them all to my forthcoming book launch. How…
It’s the secret of a successful marriage: my wife treats me like a dog
‘Here, Wolf,’ says the Fawn to me, showing me a saucer. ‘Look at this! This is the new place where…
