I Rest My Case: Unpublished Letters to the Daily Telegraph

Unpublished Letters to The Daily Telegraph #3

by Iain Hollingshead

The third book in the bestselling and hilarious series of 'Am I Alone ...?' books From the Royal wedding to Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes, and from Ed Miliband to Wikileaks, Telegraph readers offer their maverick and hilarious take on the year's events, in the letters the paper didn't publish, because they were just too off-the-wall, too outrageous, or too waggish for an august Letters page. The first two volumes of unpublished letters to the Daily Telegraph, Am I Alone in Thinking? and I Could Go On ...have both been Christmas bestsellers, and sold well in excess of 100,000 copies. Once again, it will be an essential Christmas present to give or to receive. SIR - I was disappointed that Kate Middleton has declined the offer of a Morgan sports car for her wedding; I often joke that I was conceived in one. SIR - If the expression 'jungle drums' is racially offensive, is it also racially offensive to have a TomTom in your car? SIR - Whilst posting some letters on Sunday my heart leapt when I noticed that it said Your Mail Will Be Collected NOW. Then I realised that the plate stating the day was upside down.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Iain writes feature articles for a range of publications, The Daily Telegraph in particular. Until recently, he also wrote a regular column called Loose Ends in Saturday's Guardian. He has taken part in a number of radio shows, including BBC Radio 4's Today programme and You and Yours.

His father is a GP and his mother is a surgeon. He has one elder brother. He went to Eton from 1993-98. Iain graduated from Cambridge University in 2003 with a first class degree in History. He worked for a year in Westminster - at Vote 2004 and the private office of Michael Howard - before pursuing a full-time career as a journalist. Vote 2004 was described in the Sunday Telegraph as the "most successful political campaign of all time". Iain was runner-up in the Guardian Student Media Awards as Columnist of the Year. While at university he also founded and edited The Cambridge Slapper - a popular satirical magazine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Ho...

Reviews

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am the opposite of your standard Telegraph reader. I am decidedly left of centre and have never even lived in a Tory stronghold. This book was acquired years ago in a charity shop for the dizzying cost of 50p because there’s usually a letter or two in these types of collations that are amusing. I must admit, the majority of them - professing such contrary and to me general distasteful views and opinions - were distinctly not my cup of tea. I did however have a little smile when a letter came from one of the towns near the village I grew up in in that irrational way humans have of liking things because they come from home. It is definitely the case that I generally found the place names more amusing than I did the actual letters. That being said, as expected when purchased there were a couple that led to a slight upturning of the corners of my mouth. However, given the number that were contrary to my general attitude it probably wasn’t worth it overall, and had it taken me more than a couple of hours to skim through it I would likely have found myself resenting the time spent.

[Aileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second volume of genuine letters which never made it into the Daily Telegraph. This book came out in 2011, so some of the subjects have faded from memory. A lot of them made me snort with laughter though, irony still appears to be alive and well in the Brits.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, and topical unpublished letters to the Daily Telegraph from Colonel Blimp et al of little Britain..

[chippyvale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I strayed off from my usual reading trail and borrowed this from the library (along with 2 others also in the same series). I find myself chuckling every now and then at the letters; I look forward to reading the other 2 books. :)

Some of my favourite ones:

"Sir - Celia Walden may find a young woman applying make-up on a train 'mesmerisingly awful'. She should count herself lucky. On a train out of Newcastle today, I witnessed a woman applying under-arm-roll-on deodorant." Jacqueline Wells

"Sir - I have a wife and a Sat Nav giving me directions when I'm driving, but if we ever get lost, somehow it's always my mistake." G.B.

I am guilty of doing that to my man too. :)

"Sir - why don't the Icelanders do something about their volcanoes?" David Hall.

And the last one,

"Sir - Why is it that as I get older, your crossword compilers conspire to make the clues more difficult?" Edward Hibbert

[Iain Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you liked "Am I Alone in Thinking...?!, you'll love this too.

[Aaliya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very funny letters - if you can ignore the sexist comments littered throughout the book.