Something for the Weekend: The Collected Columns of Sir Terry Wogan

by Terry Wogan, Telegraph Media Group (Contributor)

'It's my feeling that whatever's bothering you, you ought to be able to say it in less than 500 words. The rest is window-dressing ... Probably explains why I didn't write War and Peace ...'

Sir Terry Wogan has been busy over the past 10 years writing his ever-popular SUNDAY TELEGRAPH column.

In this first collection of the very best of his weekly musings, Terry delivers his distinctively dry and amusing views on life. From the disappointment of the declining years, the ubiquity of TV cooks ('Nowadays, you can't throw a stone in a country road without hitting a television chef, in full colour'), to vanity and those little daily annoyances that drive you to drink - and never fails to entertain - Terry's modern grumbles, gentle social commentary and witty observations make for a delightful assortment of reading.

Charming and wry, with not a hint of lickspittle, this is Wogan's World at its most entertaining.

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2013

About the author

Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, DL (born 3 August 1938), or also known as Terry Wogan, was a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who held dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career. Before he retired from the weekday breakfast programme 'Wake Up to Woga'n on BBC Radio 2 on 18 December 2009, Sir Terry had a regular 8 million listeners, making him the most listened-to radio broadcaster of any European nation. He began his career at Raidió Teilifís Éireann where he presented shows such as Jackpot in the 1960s.

Wogan was a leading media personality in the UK from the late 1960s and is often referred to as a national treasure. He is perhaps best known in the United Kingdom for his BBC1 chat show Wogan, for his work presenting Children in Need, as the host of Wake Up to Wogan, the original host of the BBC game show Blankety Blank (before being replaced by Les Dawson), a presenter of Come Dancing in the 1970s, and as the BBC's commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest on radio and television from 1971 to 2008. Wogan started a primetime weekend show on Radio 2 from 14 February 2010.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This gentleman seems to be the British Andy Rooney. Mostly grumbling, some of it funny. I think had I been British and therefore more familiar with a lot of the people and events discussed, I would have enjoyed it more. Well written for the most part and 99% of the entries were 2 pages long, so I could read it in tiny bits when I had time.

I did get a chuckle out of his commentary on a large family living on public funding in a very large house, where the matriarch is into dogs, the father is a racist old codger who speaks out of turn, a local shopkeeper is convinced the family had his son and the son's girlfriend killed, the kids all had disastrous marriages, and the grandkids were supposed to be in the military but were more likely to be seen in night clubs. I was more than halfway through the description before I realized who he meant. Made me chuckle.

[Yvonne Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was an ok read...

[David H Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ignore the public. This is a fine read for us TOGS.

[Louise Armstrong · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up because the page it opened at had a funny story from a listener, and I thought the books would be like that, but it's full of Terry W. I don't like Terry W. I don't like his false modesty: I was given a full piped welcome onto the royal yacht, only (titter titter) it was probably a raspberry. I don't like the way he tries to create a club of marvelleous human beings, who then jeer at the 'numpties' who run the roads, the schools, the real world in other words. I don't like the way he takes cheap pot shots at health and safety - would he rather we worked in conditions like a ship breakers in Bangladesh I saw on TV who don't bother about all that health and safety nonsense? They have about 4 fatalities a month.

However, I must give him credit for his charity work.