by Tanith Carey

18/02/2007 … Whenever someone shoots from relative obscurity to the stratosphere of fame, cash-in books are guaranteed to follow, as journalists scrabble through the cuttings…

The Very Best Of Linda Smith

27/11/2006 … ‘I can’t remember the point when I realised Linda was unusually talented.

by Mike O'Brien, Bruce Dessau

16/11/2006 … The title The Best Stand-up And Comedy Routines really ought to come with an asterix and the footnote: ‘…provided it was released on Laughing Stock.

Book review: Box 18 - The Unpublished Spike Milligan

Edited by Norma Farnes

13/11/2006 … On the inside flap of Box 18 is the usual publishers’ biographical blurb: ‘Spike Mulligan was born in 1918 to a British military family… He wrote and performed…

by Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves

06/11/2006 … A lot of very serious people have written a lot of very serious things about the humble joke.

by Julian Hall

30/10/2006 … The best way to describe The Rough Guide to Cult British Comedy is that it’s kind of like Chortle - but in book form.

Book review: Ricky Gervais, The Story So Far

by Michael Heatley

22/10/2006 … For all his vocal dislike of the cult of celebrity, Ricky Gervais has never been shy about giving interviews.

Book review: The Sound Of Laugher

by Peter Kay

13/10/2006 … Kay’s already made his name – and considerable fortune – from the very ordinariness of his life, so it comes as no surprise that his autobiography offers…