Quote: Marc P @ August 10 2010, 8:29 AM BSTSorry. No. Look up what they feel about that book in Ireland.
Why should it matter? It was based on his recollections so there's no point trying to gloss over the truth.
Funny book? Page 6
Quote: Chappers @ August 11 2010, 12:21 AM BSTWhy should it matter? It was based on his recollections so there's no point trying to gloss over the truth.
Well the point is... allegedly... that he did the opposite.
'He was known by his childhood friends as Frank 'The Flay' McCourt because on his first day at Leamy's School he was handed a small bun with hard burnt raisins on top. He had never seen a 'burnt raisin' in his life and he threw the bun on the floor and danced like a spoilt child on top of it. 'I ain't eating that it's full of fleas,' he howled as he pounded up and down on the bun. The other hungry boys watched and laughed at the strange behavior of an odd American speaking child who didn't know the difference between a raisin and a flea. But the name stuck and from that day on he was known as 'the flay McCourt.' To this day there are people living in Limerick who don't know who exactly Frank McCourt is until you tell them he was 'the flay.' Invariably they will reply, 'ah that fellow, sure he was nothing short of a miserable scabby eyed 'ol snob.'
Quote: Marc P @ August 11 2010, 8:09 AM BSTWell the point is... allegedly... that he did the opposite.
'He was known by his childhood friends as Frank 'The Flay' McCourt because on his first day at Leamy's School he was handed a small bun with hard burnt raisins on top. He had never seen a 'burnt raisin' in his life and he threw the bun on the floor and danced like a spoilt child on top of it. 'I ain't eating that it's full of fleas,' he howled as he pounded up and down on the bun. The other hungry boys watched and laughed at the strange behavior of an odd American speaking child who didn't know the difference between a raisin and a flea. But the name stuck and from that day on he was known as 'the flay McCourt.' To this day there are people living in Limerick who don't know who exactly Frank McCourt is until you tell them he was 'the flay.' Invariably they will reply, 'ah that fellow, sure he was nothing short of a miserable scabby eyed 'ol snob.'
He's got your dander up, Marc! Surely the autobiography shelves are full of inconsistencies and the like. They'd be pretty dull if they weren't. And at heart, aren't we all unreliable narrators?
No dander up here. I was just saying I didn't find it a funny book particularly. That bit about the bun is funny though 
Quote: Marc P @ August 11 2010, 9:17 AM BSTNo dander up here.
Get yourself off to a doctor! They do these little blue pills for chaps your age. 
Quote: sootyj @ August 3 2010, 11:38 AM BSTAnyone mentioned Douglas Adams or Bill Bryson both of whom are funny and wise.
Bill Bryson's wisdom is not on great display in Mother Tongue, which contains many embarrassing errors. I cannot understand why a revised edition has not been published.
Apparently Katie Price's 26th niovel is nearly ready.
Of course she doesn't write it all herself. She has a ghost writer for that.
WTF do you need a ghostwriter for a novel for? I can understand ir for an "autobiography" but if someone else writes your novel it's theirs and not yours.
yep, I think the "Writers handbook"" still has a company listed that says, don't bother to offer them anything unless your a household name, celebrity or famous. Well they have whored their bodies so why not the name too ah. ...
Surprised that nobody has mentioned PG Wodehouse.
The early Jeeves and Wooster stories are nearly 100 years old now and are still the ultimate examples in belly-hurting-piss-yourself-laughing-out-loud wordsmithery at its zenith.
Also a great novel: The Van by Roddy Doyle
And as has been mentioned elsewhere the Adrian Mole canon. Sue Townsend, a modern Wodehouse in some ways.
Quote: sidecar jon @ August 12 2010, 6:30 PM BSTyep, I think the "Writers handbook"" still has a company listed that says, don't bother to offer them anything unless your a household name, celebrity or famous. Well they have whored their bodies so why not the name too ah. ...
And celebrity novels, even ghost-written celebrity novels always write about the TV industry, or the film industry. There's no light and shade there, simply half-tones.
Blott on the Landscape is my favourite Sharpe by some way. Pratchett is a legend; and I loved Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh. Lucky Jim by Kinsley Amis is pretty damned good too, and, from the far depths of memory, I think a chap called Craig Shaw Gardiner wrote about a Cineverse - I was a wee bairn when I read it, mind.
Also, for dark comedy, Gaiman and Dickens have to be right up there.
Now that I come to think of it, The luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray is definitely not lacking of sense of humour; in fact there are lots of wit and funny bits, unlike the quite bleak transposition Stanley Kubrick made of the novel.
Quote: Flavian @ September 19 2010, 7:22 PM BSTBlott on the Landscape is my favourite Sharpe by some way. Pratchett is a legend; and I loved Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh. Lucky Jim by Kinsley Amis is pretty damned good too, and, from the far depths of memory, I think a chap called Craig Shaw Gardiner wrote about a Cineverse - I was a wee bairn when I read it, mind.
Also, for dark comedy, Gaiman and Dickens have to be right up there.
Dickens and Gaiman what an interesting combo. You should read Robert Browning Silverberg and Graham Joyce if that's how you're thinking.
Favorite Sharpe would be The Throwback for sustained meanness and violence, Wilt cos it's a classic innit and the second South African novel for coming up with best dead dog sex gag ever.
Richard Herring's How Not To Grow Up is bloody funny and bloody enjoyable.
The man's a genius!
AIOTM!!