I was caught away from home with an hour to wait for someone, and with a dying tab battery, so I popped into Oxfam to get a non-e read and picked this up, glad I did. Got half way through the book there and then, sitting in the car.
The concept is that Cook writes letters to companies with oddball ideas/comments and publishes them, together with the replies he gets. The result is a very funny book that sometimes makes you feel sorry for his 'victims' but also, at times, makes you respect the restraint and dignity of the people who are giving polite replies to letters obviously written by a complete nutter. His letter to a 'Secondary Metals....' organisation saying they should have more confidence in themselves and rename themselves the 'Primary Metals...' org is funny, but gets a kind and helpful reply explaining what secondary metals are, a win for the 'victim' there I think! The staff at Dorling Kindersley come out of it very well, although his letters to them are surreal!
My favourite is a letter asking a clarinet organisation how he can get 200 clarinettists to come to his house for his wife's birthday. He wants them to pick up their instruments as she walks in so she thinks they are going to play, but the birthday surprise is that they should then put down their instruments and leave without playing a note. That was funny enough, but he adds he must have concert standard clarinet players. Arf arf :-D