Dara mocks the English
Saturday November 07 2009
November in the world of publishing belongs to celebrities, particularly the English celebrities. From the bottom, right up to the top, every celeb has a story to tell in time for Christmas.
On Monday, Gerry Ryan's studio sang with the dulcet Eastend tones of Martine McCutcheon, there to promote her novel, The Mistress (Pan) and announce the arrival of the month that, in the words of Tom Waits "only believes in a pile of dead leaves".
Chris Evans, Ant & Dec, Richard Hammond, Jo Brand and other comedians, such as Jack Dee and Frankie Boyle, have all just published memoirs and diaries or rants of all sorts. Dee and Boyle have added a thin veil of mockery to their titles: Thanks for Nothing (Doubleday) and My Shit Life So Far (Harper) as if that is the way to our hearts and pockets.
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Refreshing then to see that one of our own has squeezed into the throng of Brits to bring out, not only a highly superior book, but one that has the audacity to call itself Tickling the English.
Dara O Briain is one of very few Irish comics to have ingratiated themselves among the English (Dylan Moran, Ed Byrne also spring to mind), but fewer still have managed to take the piss out of them and write a book. But somehow, O Briain has been embraced and loved in England.
His big break came with several slots on Have I Got News for You in 2003, but surf through cable TV in the late hours and you will find re-runs of Mock the Week, QI and his real coup, shouldering that smarmy little git, Jack Dee, from the floor of London's Apollo to host Live at the Apollo and steal the show when he did.
Tickling the English (Michael Joseph, €14.99) brings to print O Briain's knack of making everyday events feel like eccentric moments that only ever happen to him.
Without having to fall back on vulgarity or lists of expletives, O Briain has always been comfortable just telling the simple stories vividly.
There are passages in the book that feel a little more contrived, using stats and facts about the English as a springboard to, well, tickle them, as he says himself. But even that he does brilliantly.
- Tom Galvin
