Les Dawson's Secret Notebooks

by Les Dawson (Editor), Tracy Dawson (Introduction)

“The wife gave me breakfast in bed this morning . . . it flew off the plate when she threw it. I didn’t mind— there’s something vaguely sensuous about a poached egg on quilt. I know why she was angry . . . I’d spilt cocoa all down her nightdress. Serves me right for wearing it.’”

Les Dawson was the comedian’s comedian, a man with a massive following in his lifetime who has become a true cult hero. Who can forget the out-of tune piano playing, the mother-in-law jokes, and his trademark fast-fire gags and routines? Collected here by Les’s wife, Tracy, is a treasure-trove of unseen and previously unpublished Les Dawson material culled from his notebooks and diaries. Les’s determination to hone his material is clear from the boxes of hand-written gags and routines he left behind, each page funnier and more outrageous than the next. Heading after heading is followed by pages of one-liners as well as inventive letters, radio and television routines, silly drawings, and crazy, off-the-wall stories. Additionally, there are Les’s often poignant diary entries from the early days when he was a Hoover salesman struggling to make it on stage. This is a rich and fabulous feast indeed, and one that will be devoured by Les Dawson’s countless fans.

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

Les Dawson (2 February 1931 – 10 June 1993) was a popular English comedian, remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.

Raised in the Collyhurst district of Manchester, Dawson began his entertainment career as a pianist in a Parisian brothel (according to his entertaining but factually unreliable autobiography). As a club pianist ("I finally heard some applause from a bald man and said 'thank you for clapping me' and he said 'I'm not clapping - I'm slapping me head to keep awake'"), he was to find that he got laughs by playing wrong notes and complaining to the audience. He made his television debut on the talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1967 and became a prominent comic on British television for the rest of his life.

Dawson wrote many novels but was always regarded solely as an entertainer in the public imagination, and this saddened him. He told his second wife, Tracey, "Always remind them - I was a writer too".

Having broken his jaw in a boxing match, Dawson was able to pull grotesque faces by pulling his jaw over his upper lip. This incident is described in the first volume of Dawson's autobiography A Clown Too Many.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I dunno, I always enjoyed Les Dawson, but he just doesn't come through in writing, even if it's all his own work. It really needs the lugubrious face and gravelly delivery.