Grumpy Old Men: A Manual for the British Malcontent |
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David Quantick
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Pages: 112 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0007189931
Pub: HarperCollins Entertainment
Pub date: 2004-06-07
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 116254
Reader Reviews:
Not for me, thanks. (0/0 people found this helpful)
Anyone buying this book on the strength of seeing the excellent television series will be disappointed. The TV programme was witty and acerbic. This book is not.
This book reads like a stand-up routine at an open mike comedy club. It's just a list of cheap rants thrown in for cheap laughs. It's juvenile, and it gets annoying. I threw the book away. You'll hear better in your local pub.
Not old but grumpy (5/9 people found this helpful)
I saw the author on TV recently and he does not qualify to write as an old man though his grumpiness is well detailed here. The problem for me is that I did not find him particularly funny. He is no Clarkson who is a really funny grump. I found him grumpy about lots of things that do not bother me at all. like booze ads, school reunions and royalty. On the other hand, where I really want to grump, he is silent e.g. The E.U, multiculturalism, the race relations industry, mobile phoners with no manners, feminists, statists, people who do not say "Thank You" etc. I think Quantick should have just taken the easier route for grumping. Start a blog.
If this doesn't make you laugh......you must be dead! (4/5 people found this helpful)
They say laughter increases your life span. Read this and you'll live to be 200. It's a lovely selection of "grumps" about the things we all find exasperating -- people who share their drivel with us all on mobile phones in buses; fatty couch-potatoes who wear expensive Nike running shoes; shop assistants whose motto must be "they also serve who only stand and wait" .....you name it, Quantick has something hilarious (and true) to say about it. Buy it as a gift. Buy it for yourself. But buy it!
Grumpy Old Me (5/10 people found this helpful)
I picked up this book on the mistaken assumption it had something to do with the television series. I have never seen the programme but the premise is middle aged men have a moan about life's little irritations. This book is basically the same idea but concerns the problems faced when going on holiday. I wish I could say I enjoyed it enormously but the fact is I didn't. Every oft-quoted cliche about foreigners is in there as well as the usual moans about slow moving caravans on the motorway and luggage getting lost at airports. Perhaps it would make a useful reference book for someone looking for cliches but I would prefer to read some original moans. It's a quick read but only because it requires little effort.
Very funny but very short (5/7 people found this helpful)
If it had taken me longer than an evening to read this book it would probably have got 5 stars. Although a lot of the targets of the book are obvious there is a refreshing stand-up type of humour in the writing which had me giggling away to myself on numerous occasions.
The book is padded out to some extent by photographs and large typeface which makes it look a longer read than it is but it is a book I have found myself coming back to for a rescan every now and again so I guess I will get my money's worth in the end.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Humour -> TV Tie-in Humour
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Hardcover
Books -> Refinements -> Condition (condition-type)