The Stanley Holloway Monologues

by Stanley Holloway, Michael Marshall (Editor/Introduction), Bill Tidy (Illustrator)

Here, for the first time, is a unique collection of Stanley Holloway’s incomparable comic monologues, written by the entertainer and a variety of collaborators, and which he performed between 1929 and 1941.

All the much-loved characters such as Albert Ramsbottom (‘with a stick with an ‘orse’s ‘ead ‘andle’), Sam Small (‘Sam, Sam, pick oop tha’ arm), and King ‘Arold (‘on his ‘orse with his ‘awk in his ‘and’) are gathered together, and the book is splendidly illustrated by cartoonist Bill Tidy.

Genres: Humor, Poetry

92 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1979

Reviews

[Chrystyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Stanley Holloway Monologues - such good fun!

The Lion and Albert used to be a party piece of mine once upon a time. These days I struggle to remember all of it so it was lovely to read it again. I was actually surprised just how many of the monologues were familiar and how many I could hear my Grandad and Gran's voices. He would recite some of them, she just dropped odd phrases in conversation for humorous effect. Lovely to revisit.

It also amused me to spot this in Three Ha'pence A Foot:

It rained and it rained for a fortni't
And flooded the 'ole countryside
It rained and it kep' on raining
'Til the Irwell were fifty miles wide.

The 'ouses were soon under water
And folks to the roof 'ad to climb
They said 'twas the rottonist summer
That Bury 'ad 'ad for some time.

Yep, I remember summers like that growing up in Bury :-D

Ah, happy memories!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10

[Roger Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Stanley Holloway's monologues featuring young Albert Ramsbottom, Samuel Small and others. Some are a little dated now but many still stand up as amusing recitations and worth learning for a nice party piece.