Product Description

The latest collection of hilarious Guardian columns by the highly acclaimed and bestselling writer, John O'Farrell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #247181 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Synopsis
Isn't it always the way? You wait ages for one purple flour-filled condom and then three come along at once. Of course the correct procedure for a chemical attack in the House of Commons would have been for MPs to remain in the chamber and remove all items of clothing. I'm not sure which is the more horrific vision; anthrax all over London or Nicholas Soames slipping out of his Y-fronts while chatting to a naked Ann Widdecombe. Here at last is the third and final collection of "Guardian" columns from John O'Farrell, award-winning comedy - writer and compulsive liar. In this eye-watering journey from innocence to revelation, he discovers that Margaret Thatcher is actually his mother. Contained within these covers are a hundred funny, satirical essays on subjects as diverse as Man's ascent from the apes and the re-election of George W. Bush. Plus there is a full account of O'Farrell's heroic but doomed attempt to capture his Tory home town for socialism. Maidenhead has never been the same since. He also makes a number of preposterous claims, including that identity fraud has got so bad that an audacious impostor using the name A.L.

Blair even managed to get himself a Labour Party card by posing a left-wing champion of wealth distribution and civil rights. He asks why a Blackberry isn't compatible with an Apple. And finds out why the Queen didn't go to her own son's wedding; 'What happened to that other girl you were seeing?' 'Mother, we got divorced and then she died in a car crash, remember?' 'Well sometimes you have to work at these things dear...'

From the Back Cover
Isn’t it always the way? You wait ages for one purple flour-filled condom and then three come along at once. Of course the correct procedure for a chemical attack in the House of Commons would have been for MPs to remain in the chamber and remove all items of clothing. I’m not sure which is the more horrific vision: anthrax all over London or Nicholas Soames slipping out of his Y-fronts while chatting to a naked Ann Widdecombe.

Here at last is the third and final collection of Guardian columns from John O’Farrell, award-winning comedy writer and compulsive liar. In this eye-watering journey from innocence to revelation, he discovers that Margaret Thatcher is actually his mother.

Contained within these covers are a hundred funny, satirical essays on subjects as diverse as Man’s ascent from the apes and the re-election of George W. Bush. Plus there is a full account of O’Farrell’s heroic but doomed attempt to capture his Tory home town for socialism. Maidenhead has never been the same since.

He also makes a number of preposterous claims, including that identity fraud has got so bad that an audacious impostor using the name A. L. Blair even managed to get himself a Labour Party card by posing as a left-wing champion of wealth distribution and civil rights. He asks why a Blackberry isn’t compatible with an Apple. And finds out why the Queen didn’t go to her own son’s wedding: ‘What happened to that other girl you were seeing?’ ‘Mother, we got divorced and then she died in a car crash, remember?’ ‘Well, sometimes you have to work at these things, dear . . .’

About the Author
John O'Farrell:
John O’Farrell is the author of two bestselling novels, THE BEST A MAN CAN GET and THIS IS YOUR LIFE, and the bestselling memoir THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER. His name has flashed past at the end of such productions as SPITTING IMAGE, HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU and CHICKEN RUN. He writes a weekly column in the Guardian and a collection of his journalism was recently published as GLOBAL VILLAGE IDIOT. He lives in London with his wife and two children.

Customer Reviews

Mildly amusing ramblings
John O'Farrell witters on attractively, but never hits the heights of "It Can Only Get Better" - the book in which he definitively nails the right-on eighties.

Enjoyable
I enjoyed the collection of articles and some were very funny, along with an occasional groan for the rather clever puns. I did find his book Global Village Idiot, containing some of his earlier articles, better however.

Alternative Chronicle of the Blair Years
`I Have a Bream' is the third collection of John O'Farrell's Guardian columns following on from `Global Village Idiot' and `I Blame the Scapegoats' and as before O'Farrell continues to make fun of politicians and current affairs is the same vein as he mined as the principle writer of `Spitting Image' and `Have I Got News For You'.

As ever O'Farrell hits the target every time weather comparing Tony Blair's assent to the head of the Labour Party with identity fraud or rewriting evolution from man's evolving from the ape's to going full circle with the re-election of George W. Bush.

O'Farrell has now stopped writing his Guardian column but these books stand as an alternative chronicle of Tony Blair's premiership. John O'Farrell, like a purple flour filled condom, hits the spot.