Thatcher Stole My Trousers - Hardcover

Sayle, Alexei

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1408864533 ISBN 13: 9781408864531

Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus, 2016

Synopsis

In 1971, Alexei Sayle, raised by communist parents in 1950s Liverpool, set out to find his fortune in London. It was a city where punk was in its infancy, unemployment was high, the weekly meetings of the Communist Party of Britain took place in the Bellman bookshop, a young Margaret Thatcher was just made Secretary of State for Education, and stand-up comedy was unheard of.

Less than a decade later Alexei was the first MC of London's only comedy club, the Comedy Store, and the landscape of British comedy had transformed. "The only completely new thing that I could bring was an authentic working class voice plus a threat of genuine violence--nobody in Monty Python looked like a hard case who'd kick your head in."

From his years as a Chelsea Art School student, a DHSS office clerk, a textbook illustrator, a dinner lady and a drama teacher, to his early experiences in fringe theater and the discovery that he could make people laugh, Thatcher Stole My Trousers chronicles a time when comedy and politics came together in electrifying ways. Recounting the opening season of the Comedy Store, his time at the Alternative Cabaret, the Comic Strip and the Young Ones, and his friendships with the comedians who would soon become household names, this is a unique and beguiling blend of social history and memoir.

Fascinating, funny, angry and entertaining, it is a story of class and comedy, politics and love, Doc Martins and Tiswas.

About this title

About the Author

Born in Liverpool, the only child of Communist parents, Alexei Sayle became the first MC of the Comedy Store and later the Comic Strip. After years of stand-up, television, sitcoms, films and even a hit single, he published his first highly acclaimed collection of short stories. Barcelona Plates was followed by The Dog Catcher, two novels--Overtaken and The Weeping Women Hotel, and a novella, Mister Roberts. The first volume of Alexei's memoirs was Stalin Ate My Homework.

Review

"Sums up the dualities of the period under discussion perfectly. He might be best known as a stand-up comic but Sayle is also a fine writer and fierce raconteur." ―The Guardian (Book of the Day)

"An affectionate account of a group of performers who transformed British comedy." ―Sunday Times

"I devoured the first chapters of Sayle’s terrific second volume of memoirs . . . Thatcher Stole My Trousers, but he changed my life." **** ―Mail on Sunday

"This is an unexpected delight . . . An observant and wry account of Sayle’s young adulthood in which the jokes creep up on the reader, as unexpectedly as the philosophical insights." ―The Independent

"Hilarious . . . Refreshingly different." ―The Herald

"A reminder of an era when comedians wanted to change the world as much as make us laugh." ―Sunday Post

"Always entertaining." ―Choice Magazine

"Enlightening . . . Funny, smart, original and provocative stuff . . . I laughed out loud." - New Statesman

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1408864533
• ISBN 13: 9781408864531
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336