A Great, Silly Grin: The British Satire Boom of the 1960s

by Humphrey Carpenter

What Jonathan Miller, one of its high priests, calls a "peculiar episode in British cultural history" provides rich material for Carpenter to dig into. He explores the creeping postwar unease, fast-growing consumerism, and other social factors of the early 1960s that set the stage for the explosion of "a new ... characteristically English style of subversion" that took the form of the most silly social and political commentary. Carpenter, also a biographer of Tolkien, Auden, Pound, and others, traces the people who fed England's sudden appetite for satire, including Miller, Michael Frayn, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, and Alan Bennett. The edition includes eight pages of crisp b&w photos. Originally published in London in 2000 as That was satire that was (Victor Gollancz). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Humor, History

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J.R.R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inklings. He won a Mythopoeic Award for his book The Inklings in 1982.

Reviews

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

American Monty Python fans will be interested. The history of Brit satire revolutionized comedy

[Fenixbird SandS]

Remember many of these great fun British comedies...Faulty Towers was 1 of my favorites! My current favorite is "As Times Goes By" starring none other than Judy Dench

[Benedict Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

The impact of "Beyond the Fringe" on the sixties... in particular TW3.

[Shane]

I picked this up from a Borders sale over a decade ago. One of these days, I will read it.