On the house

by Simon Hoggart

155 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Richard Newbold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tittle tattle and some political and human insight from the late Simon Hoggart (later to be best known as host of the Radio 4 News Quiz), when he was a parliamentary correspondent and wrote a column for the gently satirical magazine Punch. Hoggart sets himself up as a deflater of the self-important and pompous members of the Houses of Parliament, and in this first volume, serves as a useful sideways historical look at UK politics after the election of 1979 up until the Falklands War. Jarringly, he has it in for the late Geoffrey Dickens, a colourful foot-in-mouth working class Conservative MP whose denunciation at the time of paedophilia in the establishment Hoggart roundly rubbishes - much of Dickens' allegations proving to be the tip of a very large iceberg, as the Savile scandals became unearthed. Mostly though, Hoggart takes aim at targets right and left with precision and not a little affection.

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of political anecdotes from the 1970s and very early '80s by the author of the Guardian's sketch column, although the anecdotes here are from when he used to write for Punch. I enjoy Hoggart's style, with the writing being witty and the anecdotes never outstaying their welcome. Given the time period, he obviously talks about a lot of people who I've never heard of, but since they recur again and again, you feel you've got to know them by the end, and it was nice spotting people who'd go on to make it big later on.

While some of the stories talk about practices that have pretty much died out, it's nice (well, maybe) to see that so much hasn't changed changed in thirty+ years of British politics.