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1pamelad
Can we resurrect this group? A source of excellent recommendations.
I have just started on The Marsh Marlowe Letters. Anyone else read it?
I have just started on The Marsh Marlowe Letters. Anyone else read it?
2wunderkind
I second that request.
I haven't heard of The Marsh Marlowe Letters, but I see that it's got one really bad rating so far. Have you finished it enough to add your own rating? Is it as bad as that one person says?
I have lately been really drawn to the gentle humor in British children's literature: Peter Pan, The Young Visiters, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie-the-Pooh....
I haven't heard of The Marsh Marlowe Letters, but I see that it's got one really bad rating so far. Have you finished it enough to add your own rating? Is it as bad as that one person says?
I have lately been really drawn to the gentle humor in British children's literature: Peter Pan, The Young Visiters, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie-the-Pooh....
3pamelad
Finished The Marsh Marlowe Letters. Entertaining in parts. Two pompous wankers trading hypocrisies. Snide, so doesn't sound as though it would be to your taste, wunderkind.
4wunderkind
Sounds like I'd have to be in the right mood...
5pinkozcat
#1 It seems a shame to let this group die. There is so much BritWit out there.
I have just read a book called The Spanish Ambassador's Suitcase which is a collection of diplomatic dispatches, some of which are very funny. There was one, written by Glencairn Balfour Paul, while in Jordan, which reduced me to tears of laughter.
And of course, that classic from the British Embassy in Moscow, written in 1943:
My Dear Reggie
In these dark days man tends to look for little shafts of light that spill from heaven. My days are probably darker than yours, and I need, my God I do, all the light I can get. But I am a decent fellow, and I do not want to be mean and selfish about what little brightness is shed upon me from time to time. So I propose to share with you a tiny flash that has illuminated my sombre life and tell you that God has given me a new Turkish colleague whose card tells me that he is called Mustafa Kunt.
We all feel like that, Reggie, now and then, especially when spring is upon us, but few of us would care to put it on our cards. It takes a Turk to do that.
Archibald Clark Kerr
I have just read a book called The Spanish Ambassador's Suitcase which is a collection of diplomatic dispatches, some of which are very funny. There was one, written by Glencairn Balfour Paul, while in Jordan, which reduced me to tears of laughter.
And of course, that classic from the British Embassy in Moscow, written in 1943:
My Dear Reggie
In these dark days man tends to look for little shafts of light that spill from heaven. My days are probably darker than yours, and I need, my God I do, all the light I can get. But I am a decent fellow, and I do not want to be mean and selfish about what little brightness is shed upon me from time to time. So I propose to share with you a tiny flash that has illuminated my sombre life and tell you that God has given me a new Turkish colleague whose card tells me that he is called Mustafa Kunt.
We all feel like that, Reggie, now and then, especially when spring is upon us, but few of us would care to put it on our cards. It takes a Turk to do that.
Archibald Clark Kerr
6Novak
Oh, Pinko' Thank you so much for that. I cannot believe it has been here since March without my seeing it. I have shared it with some friends here and we are all in fits laughing. Poor Mustafa.. .. ..
I am now going in search of said "suitcase". Oh dear, another book.. ..
I am now going in search of said "suitcase". Oh dear, another book.. ..
7Novak
I am constantly dipping into “Quotable Ustinov”. What a very funny Brit Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov was:
“Regrets? I have none. They are a waste of time which is becoming more and more valuable.”
Any more good ones anyone?
“Regrets? I have none. They are a waste of time which is becoming more and more valuable.”
Any more good ones anyone?
8pinkozcat
I think that one of Ustinov's funniest was his description of the sex education he received at school. I'll have to dig up my copy of Dear Me and see if I can find it. Watch this space ...
Edited to say that I have found the passage but it is 11.30pm and too late to start typing: tomorrow.
Edited to say that I have found the passage but it is 11.30pm and too late to start typing: tomorrow.
9Novak
Yes, I'm told it does get late early in your part of the world. Anyway.. .. some of us just love being in suspenders !
10pinkozcat
Quote from Dear Me by Peter Ustinov
"It was, apparently, the first day of a new term at his son's school. The headmaster, obeying the instructions of a Government by now aware of the dangers of ignorance was compelled to explain the facts of life to those of a certain age-group. The poor man had been rehearsing his speech all through the summer recess and eventually, in a panic of prudery, unable to bear the sniggers he could already hear in his head, he was reduced to composing a pamphlet, published at his own expense, which every boy found lying on his desk as the new term began.
This pamphlet began with the following seven words: 'You man have noticed, between your legs ...' "
Dear Me should be read by everyone who appreciates BritWit - Ustinov's description of his time in the army when his group was ordered to pretend that they were invading Germans to give the Home Guard some practice and much to the anger and frustration of their captors he refused to speak anything but German. Go figure ...
"It was, apparently, the first day of a new term at his son's school. The headmaster, obeying the instructions of a Government by now aware of the dangers of ignorance was compelled to explain the facts of life to those of a certain age-group. The poor man had been rehearsing his speech all through the summer recess and eventually, in a panic of prudery, unable to bear the sniggers he could already hear in his head, he was reduced to composing a pamphlet, published at his own expense, which every boy found lying on his desk as the new term began.
This pamphlet began with the following seven words: 'You man have noticed, between your legs ...' "
Dear Me should be read by everyone who appreciates BritWit - Ustinov's description of his time in the army when his group was ordered to pretend that they were invading Germans to give the Home Guard some practice and much to the anger and frustration of their captors he refused to speak anything but German. Go figure ...
11Novak
>10 pinkozcat: Thank you for that laugh, well worth the wait.
I think it was Peter who said in an interview that “no matter how bad things get there is always this person inside my head laughing.”
So many Brits (and others too) seem to suffer from the same advantage. I know that I do.
I note you sign off with (the excellent) “go figure” which many Brits see as an Americanisation. Our college equivalent was the (also excellent) acronym FOFO. The second FO stands for “find out”.
I think it was Peter who said in an interview that “no matter how bad things get there is always this person inside my head laughing.”
So many Brits (and others too) seem to suffer from the same advantage. I know that I do.
I note you sign off with (the excellent) “go figure” which many Brits see as an Americanisation. Our college equivalent was the (also excellent) acronym FOFO. The second FO stands for “find out”.
12alexmarsh 
Dieser Beitrag hat von mehreren Benutzern eine Missbrauchskennzeichnung erhalten und wird nicht mehr angezeigt. (anzeigen)
A bit sad to see this group dormant, being - I suppose - a BritWit author. ( The Resurrection of Frederic Debreu ). If it adds anything to the discussion for interested parties passing by, it's really, really tough to get humorous fiction published in the UK at the mo - or that's what book industry people told me when I was originally doing the rounds with this manuscript (and I already had a book out with a major publisher so I wasn't a complete newcomer).
I guess lots of reasons; maybe to do with the fact that humour is a very individual thing, so it's more of a risk if you're not already established as a 'name' comic or humorist.
Anyway, having grown up loving stuff like Wodehouse, lucky jim etc., it would be lovely if this British tradition could recapture the glory days of those books that appear out of nowhere and simply delight you.
I guess lots of reasons; maybe to do with the fact that humour is a very individual thing, so it's more of a risk if you're not already established as a 'name' comic or humorist.
Anyway, having grown up loving stuff like Wodehouse, lucky jim etc., it would be lovely if this British tradition could recapture the glory days of those books that appear out of nowhere and simply delight you.
13pechmerle
I assume all here have made their way through the works of Evelyn Waugh? I've read them out of order, having first come across Black Mischief years ago. Lately, though, I've got a bit more systematic. In his first novel, Decline and Fall. the first half is rather pedestrian parody of English public school life. The second half, though, is laugh out loud adventures of our (naif) hero after he's been sacked from the school staff. The section where the prison warden tells him that 'we like to put our inmates to work at tasks related to what they did in their life on the outside' is priceless.
