Tony Parsons

The cowards guide to comedy at the Fringe

Well the excitement is building as the big event is now only a matter of days away.

Tony Parsons, The Huffington Post, 20th July 2012

InEd Reardon's Week we found the world's most frustrated author in rather less straitened circumstances than usual, living with the successful writer Mary Potter (the point being made was obvious, but unspoken) and earning regular money by condensing the works of more successful writers for readers with short attention spans. He got Nick Hornby down to half a page, Tony Parsons to a single paragraph.

There was a beautiful little throwaway scene in which Reardon corrected the grammar of the nubile literary agent, Ping. She said something 'would of' happened, he pointed out that 'would have' might take longer to say, but had the advantage of being grammatically correct. Later we learnt that Ping had a double starred first from Balliol. It summed up him, her and the times - he, with his dedication to a language battered beyond recognition; she, with a good brain that has sifted out the bits it needs to be successful and discarded the rest.

Elgar the cat went missing, and Reardon hung a four-page 'Lost' notice on lampposts. Then a large cat was spotted floating down the canal, and Reardon fished it out.

By the end, all was well. Elgar lived still, and Reardon had gone to a lot of trouble to bury a mere lookalike. And Mary Potter had departed, driven away by Reardon's jealousy and inability to change. So, no girlfriend, then, but his flat was his own once more and his cat was by his side. Misery may love company, but it likes to choose the company it keeps.

Chris Campling, The Times, 7th October 2008