{"product_id":"the-spectator","title":"The Spectator","description":"Product Description\n\n\nApproaching its 200th birthday in the rudest of health, the Spectator is known for the quality of its writing and the deep eccentricity of some of its writers. Given the freedom to say what they want, they take that freedom and more, and the result is original, provocative, often very funny, sometimes plain wrong. From Jeffrey Bernard's reports from the Soho frontline and Auberon Waugh fulminating about hamburger gases in the early 1990s, we encounter in turn the wild stream of consciousness of Deborah Ross's restaurant reviews, the pinpoint etiquette advice of Mary Killen, Rod Liddle's frothing but elegantly sculpted outrage and the magazine's secret weapon, low life adventurer Jeremy Clarke. This bumper selection, which also includes eminent diarists, mad letter-writers and Boris Johnson, amounts to a masterclass in comic writing, lovingly compiled and edited by Marcus Berkmann, who still can't believe he wrote a monthly pop column for the magazine for twenty-eight years without being fired.\n\n\nReview\n\n\nA treasure trove to mine for one's own conversational repertoire -- Mary Killen\n\nThis gloriously entertaining volume draws together the wittiest writing from the\nSpectator magazine from 1990 to 2014 ―\nDaily Mail\n\n\nBook Description\n\n\nThe Spectator Book of Wit, Humour and Mischief collects some of the magazine's drollest contributions of the past twenty-five years, bringing a sharp eye to bear on the strangenesses of modern life.\n\n\nFrom the Back Cover\n\n\nApproaching its two-hundredth birthday in the rudest of health, the Spectator is known for the quality of its writing and the deep eccentricity of some of its writers. Given the freedom to say what they want, they take that freedom and more, and the result is original, provocative, often very funny, sometimes plain wrong. The Spectator Book of Wit, Humour and Mischief collects some of the magazine's drollest contributions of the past twenty-five years, bringing a sharp eye to bear on the strangenesses of modern life. This bumper selection, which also includes eminent diarists, mad letter-writers and Boris Johnson, amounts to a masterclass in comic writing, lovingly compiled and edited by Marcus Berkmann, who still can't believe he wrote a monthly pop column for the magazine for twenty-eight years without being fired.\n\n\nAbout the Author\n\n\nMarcus Berkmann has spent more than thirty years sitting in front of various television screens swearing at incompetent England batsmen. In his leisure time he has written columns on sport for\nPunch, the\nIndependent on Sunday and the\nDaily Express. He is a regular contributor to\nPrivate Eye and film critic of the\nOldie, and writes book reviews for the\nDaily Mail. His books include\nRain Men: The Madness of Cricket,\nZimmer Men: The Trials and Tribulations of the Ageing Cricketer,\nFatherhood: The Truth and\nA Matter of Facts: The Insider's Guide to Quizzing.","brand":"Abacus (UK)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39668065468501,"sku":"9780349143415N","price":11.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2481\/5790\/products\/f52d9942-8746-4a39-9d3e-49e32214ef28.jpg?v=1644302499","url":"https:\/\/smeikalbooks.co.uk\/en-us\/products\/the-spectator","provider":"smeikalbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}