Book of Put Downs

by Laura Ward

Put downs are the kind of things you wished you'd said yourself, but couldn't think up in time. Whether it be rock star or politician, actress or businessman, no-one in the public eye is immune to a perfectly-executed barb. "His writing is limited to songs for dead blondes," is Keith Richards' view on Elton John. "What is Wales for?" asked Anne Robinson to a contestant on The Weakest Link Very little links Groucho Marx, Dorothy Parker, Pat Buchanan, Winston Churchill and Bette Middler, other than a common language. They're all fluent in vitriol. This book assembles the absolute master craftsmen in their field and proves that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2004

Reviews

[Jonathon]

My only issue with this book is that they have some text that's magenta, and some page backgrounds that are pink, and some genius thought it'd be a good idea to put the 2 together making it kind of hard to read them. Other than that, it's a nice little collection.

[Jo Blackburn]

I didn't find anything clever or amusing in this book, alot of extracts of quotes which just didn't make any sense to me.Maybe I'm just hard to please, or maybe I expect too much from a put down, or maybe I'm just not very nice?

[Alison]

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of dazzling insults, comebacks, and put-downs.

[Frank Taranto]

Some reaal y good put downs, but a lot of just so-so stuff too.

[Barbara]

This one had some good bits, but was surprisingly too anglo as in English even for me and I'm an anglophile.