Sunday, 26 October 2009

After cleaning out the chickens, I spent today making Christmas cakes. Of course I washed my hands first and I cooked only under Jackie’s close supervision.

In the evening I completed Crime on Her Mind – an anthology of early female detective writing compiled by Michele B Slung. I also read Kevin Goldstein-Jackson’s 1973 masterpiece Right Joke Right Occasion which provides an excellent snapshot of pre-punk British humour. It's a curious experience reading jokes from your childhood: very few have stood the test of time although I quite enjoyed:
- Mum, there’s a man at the door with a bill.
- Don’t be silly dear, it must be a duck wearing a hat.

I also recently read Of All the Bloody Cheek by Frank McAuliffe, a 1960 parody of the James Bond format with the twist that the central character is just a paid assassin. I think that Tim Dowling’s awkwardly titled novel The Giles Wareing Haters’ Club may have been written as a parody of Bridget Jones, with the twist that the central character is actually a man.