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thma's review against another edition
4.0
A mix of mostly good/great pieces in here with the odd misfire - essentially if you enjoyed the Observer column he used to write, you'll like this. It's not the kind of book to get really stuck into and read in one go though. (Can you tell from how long it took for me to read?)
The added context before some pieces was really helpful, as it turns out I can barely remember the bygone era of 2015, and the added comments from other readers at the time are often priceless.
The added context before some pieces was really helpful, as it turns out I can barely remember the bygone era of 2015, and the added comments from other readers at the time are often priceless.
goldiefan's review
5.0
You’ve got to be a fan to appreciate this, and as a huge fan I loved it just as much as his previous collections. Keep them coming.
jamessmith82's review
5.0
The important thing with this book is that you have to love Stewart Lee, either his stand up work, particularly Comedy Vehicle, or his articles in the Guardian and the Observer. If you don’t, you’ll hate this, if you do, well, you’ll love it. I love the way his writing is so dry that you’re never quiet sure of his personal stance, but more importantly, under many of the articles are comments left under the online articles by clueless sociopaths. The book is almost worth reading just for those.
ross_maclean's review
4.0
As a longstanding fan of Stewart Lee since way back, I have to say that I’ve not always appreciated his newspaper columns in the same way I have his standup — constrained, as they are, by limitations that the careful pace of his live comedy is not. Reading all these together en masse has given me a new appreciation of the dribs and drabs I’d read over the years and it is possible to see a honing of his style and his fine tuning of the ‘Stewart Lee columnist persona’ as it progresses. Of course it’s very funny and his reveries which push to the extremities are beautifully realised, with a heavy folk horror influence, which I found compelling. (I’d love to see Stewart Lee tackle a straight-up folk horror). Reading this at a distance from the events depicted of between 9 and 4 years, it inevitably robs the pieces of some of their contemporary impact but his characterisations of figures like Michael Gove and Grant Shapps stand the test of time. The contextualisations add an extra layer and the inclusion of counterpoint below the line opinions are an inspired diversion. It would have been nice to see a little more variance away from Observer pieces but the sojourns into ShortList and ghost story territory were welcome punctuation points, as was the final positive note of the band Wolf People’s press release.
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