Fifty years after Catch-22 was published, Joseph Heller’s novel is still making readers squirm with its use of satire and dark humour. But did you know the term ‘black humour’ was coined by a Frenchman? Yup. It was André Breton, who said Jonathan Swift was the first author to use this style of writing. In 1939, Breton wrote a book called Anthology of Black Humour (Anthologie de L’Humour Noir) and put this comedy sub-genre on the literary map.

Dip into the work of Charles Addams, Edward Gorey, Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk and other practitioners of this dark art – enjoy The Blackest Black Humour.