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"The Trials and Triumphs of Les Dawson" by Louise Barfe, published in 2012 in Great Britain in hardback with dustjacket by Atlantic Books, 340pp, ISBN 9781848872509
Condition Notes: These are remainder copies, straight from the warehouse, packed in sealed packs. However, the condition of these copies was less than new with minor scrapes, creases, folds, bumps or nicks and tiny tears to the dustjacket edge. They are not suitable for giving as presents, unless you're looking for something that has not been touched by a previous reader. They are unread; and they have never been displayed on a shop shelf or in a shop window. They have not been handled by any customers anywhere. They are new (seconds). From 11 series of Sez Les to the wilder lunacies of Blankety Blank, Les Dawson was always around and always hilarious... We shall probably never see his like again... All praise to Louis Barfe. He's got the context as well as the jokes right here. He gives you more than the booze and fags and the sometimes tortured hero of standard showbiz biographies. He makes us realise what we lost when Les Dawson died. --Observer Louis Barfe succeeds in digging beneath the television personality to uncover Dawson's hidden layers. --Time Out [A] conscientious, heartfelt book... In today's hard times, we could do with another comic like Dawson. --New Statesman Lugubrious, complex and always funny, Les Dawson gets the biography he deserves. --Scotsman Les Dawson: a comedian who, more than any other, spoke for the phlegmatic, resigned, sarcastic, glorious British way of life. This is his story. A Northern lad who climbed out of the slums thanks to an uncommonly brilliant mind, Les Dawson was always the underdog, but his bark was funnier and more incisive than many comics who claimed to bite. Married twice in real life, he had a third wife in his comic world - a fictional ogre built from spare parts left by fleeing Nazis at the end of World War II - and an equally frightening mother-in-law. He was down to earth, yet given to eloquent, absurd flights of fancy. He was endlessly generous with his time, but slow to buy a round of drinks. He was a mass of contradictions. In short, he was human, he was genuine, and that's why audiences loved him. About the Author Louis Barfe was born in 1973 in Epsom, Surrey. He studied at Lancaster University. He has written for Private Eye, The Oldie, New Statesman and the Independent on Sunday. His books include Where Have All the Good Times Gone: The Rise and Fall of the Record Industry and Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light Entertainment. |