David Sedaris

From the B-word to the Q-word: an alphabet of offence

When the unsayable is constantly evolving, it makes language a minefield.

David Sedaris is one of the funniest writers alive, and a new series of his essays started last week on Radio 4. The shows are simple - Sedaris just reads out his essays and some of his diary in front of a live audience - but they are guaranteed to cheer you up in these fun-free, panicky days. Episode 1, Father Time, is partly about Sedaris's 95-year-old dad, and is hilarious and touching, as ever. (Nerdy fact: Sedaris's sister, Amy, is an actor, and played Audrey Temple in Gimlet Media's Homecoming podcast.)

David Sedaris: 'The audience thinks I'm monstrous'

The US writer and humorist talks about his sister's suicide, how he gets shocked by his own writing, and why he hates Moby-Dick.

David Sedaris: If I come across a man my size I squeak

Elfin, diminutive, bonsai-size - the 5ft 5in author has heard it all. What's the big deal?

Radio Times review

I like to laugh. I just don't get enough opportunities listening to the radio. This is where the humourist and writer David Sedaris takes on a heroic status. There was not a single sentence that did not raise a smile, and most of them led to full-on, unadulterated laughter.

Sedaris writes about what he knows: in the case of these three short readings that's a terrifying babysitter called Mrs Peacock, an altercation with a giant human poo in someone else's toilet and a trick that he played upon his partner involving two artificial pistols. He makes the mundane extraordinary and his acute observational powers add a whole new dimension to the everyday experience.

There will be nothing as funny as this on radio this week -- or possibly this year.

David Sedaris is an upbeat listen too, his readings making me laugh along with his very enthusiastic audience. (This series is a repeat, but still worth checking out.) His writing always seems like such airy, inconsequential stuff, and yet it's perfectly timed, wonderfully written. There are some great lines and neatly observed scenes, especially about his family, and his light-voiced delivery is lovely - you feel he wants you to enjoy yourself as much as he does. If you listened to the end, this week, you got a couple of extracts from his diary, and the last ones - about women removing their bras as soon as they can after work - had me howling.

This week's new live comedy

Previews of Matt Richardson, David Sedaris and Joe Wilkinson.

Writers' Guild Awards 2013 shortlists

Nominations for Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine, Joanna Scanlan, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Stefan Golaszewski, Susan Calman, Sanjeev Kohli, Donald McLeary, David Sedaris, Alice Lowe and Steve Oram.