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Laura Solon came from nowhere to become only the second solo women to win the Perrier award in 2005, following in the footsteps of Jenny Eclair a decade earlier.

She was born in London, raised near Aylesbury, and attended Worcester College, Oxford, where she began writing and performing comedy as part of the Oxford Revue. She initially tried stand up, but found her niche in character comedy.

Solon scooped comedy's biggest prize at the age of 26, thanks to her one-woman show Kopfraper's Syndrome: One Man and His Incredible Mind. The Edinburgh success led to an immediate commission from Radio 4, which broadcast her debut show Talking And Not Talking from January 2007.

She has also written for several TV shows, including BBC3 sketch show Man Stroke Woman

Laura Solon: Rabbit Faced Story Soup - Fringe 2009
Live Review

Laura Solon was the magpie of Edinburgh, having swooped down on festival out of nowhere, accidentally stolen the shiny thing, then disappeared just as quickly.

Well, the TV career obviously didn’t take off as promised, so now she’s back, four years after her Perrier win, to remind us of the talents that won her that prize in the first place.

And there’s no doubt she succeeds, with this entertaining, character-driven yarn, full of wryly smart lines and performed with subtle aplomb. Rabbit Faced Story Soup is not just a showcase for disparate sketches and comic creations, but employs a proper narrative, about the world of a small-scale book publisher, to properly hook the audience.

The sit of this com enables her to pointedly spoof literary genres. Anyone who’s taken perverse joy in the leaden prose of potboilers exposed by the likes of Robin Ince’s Book Club will surely enjoy the fictionalised versions Solon serves up. Her authors include a sci-fi writer, clunkily promoting her embittered feminist message, pretentious French existentialist Didier Auberge with his suicide-inducing 6,000-page punctuation-free tome, and the children’s author Carole Price, whose first post-divorce work makes little attempt to hide its subtext.

The plot, however, involves the publishing house’s megastar author, who goes missing after submitting a blockbuster manuscript – but without the crucial last chapter. The oligarch company owner, the ruthless agent and the hapless assistant all must try to track it down.

On the face of it, these characters are broadly drawn: the Frenchman is arrogant, the Eastern European billionaire tyrannically intimidating, the superbitch agent, well, super bitchy and compassion-free. Yet in Solon’s more-than capable hands they don’t seem too much like stereotypes, with convincing performance and clever, funny lines to enforce their personalities with brevity and wit. Just a single one-liner, for instance, and you’ll never see the term ‘spam folder’ in quite the same way again.

Her restrained performance adds to the believability, not to mention the fact she has an impressionist’s ear to capture the soul of person in their intonation. Even just a fleeting cameo like her Radio 4 presenter nailed the rhythms and underlying condescension in the voice perfectly.

With her long-overdue comeback, Solon is striving for the simple, yet often elusive, aim of a classy, delightfully funny hour. Job done.

Not entirely sure she should be listed as a comic. She's a good actress, but her humour really doesn't work for me. It certainly isn't mainstream comedy. Odd.

N O'S, January 2010

I listened to Talking Not Talking: it's character comedy but without the comedy bit! e

Alan, December 2009

Me and my sister are addicted to Talking and Not Talking... When can we have series 3?

hayesi, July 2009

Listened to all of her radio series, Talking And Not Talking, really very good especially for a newcomer. I'm looking forward to her appearance in Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's new sketch show, it should be great!

Paul.B, April 2007

Talking And Not Talking was really excellent - I loved it. Can't wait to hear more from her.

Graham, March 2007

Listened to her downloads on Radio 4 - totally brilliant. Only managed to hear four episodes, wish i had heard the others. Can't wait until she does another series.

mark houghton, March 2007