Thatcher Stole My Trousers - Softcover

Alexei Sayle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408864541 ISBN 13: 9781408864548

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 1785

Synopsis

Thatcher Stole My Trousers

About this title

About the Author

Born in Liverpool, the only child of Communist parents, Alexei moved to London in 1971 to attend Chelsea Art School. He 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. alexeisayle.me

Review

Enlightening ... Funny, smart, original and provocative ... It is hard to imagine the stalwarts of Mock the Week recognising the Druze militia leader Walid Jumblatt in a London cinema ... Compared to today's comics and the unctuous 1970s Variety Club of Great Britain golf club elite, Sayle - baleful, menacing, intelligent - comes over as a bloke whose company one might seek out, whether he cared or not. He is a master of the flashing en passant insult. I laughed out loud * New Statesman * Few standups have come close to capturing a fraction of this creative energy in a book ... Alexei Sayle is an exception ... The reader is left with a lesson so often imparted in the standup's foray into memoir: comedy is no laughing matter * Guardian, Book of the Day * 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 * Thatcher Stole My Trousers deals with the birth of stand-up as we understand it in the UK ... I really, really enjoyed this, I thought it was brilliant ... Laugh-out-loud * Stewart Lee * The inventor of alternative comedy * David Baddiel * Comedy underwent seismic change in the 1980s, and Alexei Sayle was at the forefront of it ... Thatcher Stole My Trousers, is full of self-accusation, pratfalls, memories of idiocy and delusion, all built up for comic effect. But about his debut he is deadly serious: he knows he helped change the tone of British comedy. He blazed a trail for a new generation of punkish comic violence (such as The Young Ones) and politically engaged stand-up, that consigned to oblivion the old gag-merchants; he effectively silenced the humour of mothers-in-law, tits, arses, Pakis, micks and poofs * Independent * An unexpected delight. All those lefty stand-up comedians who monopolise the funny stuff now: their style started with Alexei Sayle and his comrades of the 1980s ... It is not packed with one-liners. It is much funnier than that ... Observant and wry * Independent * Sayle relates an endless stream of entertaining anecdotes ... An affectionate account of a group of performers who transformed British comedy * Sunday Times * An interesting social history here as comedy and politics come together in the late 1970s and his work with The Comic Strip and The Young Ones takes centre stage. It's fascinating to watch Sayle battle with his principles * Observer * Alternative comedy's erstwhile ranter-in-chief has mellowed with age but expect a few residual flecks of spleen * Daily Telegraph * The granddaddy of alternative comedy... Takes potshots at the establishment and his comrades. Laced with his trademark corrosive wit * Shortlist * This century he has reinvented himself as a writer. A good one too. Thatcher Stole My Trousers is a pleasure to read * Herald * Brilliantly funny * Waitrose Weekend * A combative return for a pioneer of alternative comedy ... Anarchic * Yorkshire Post *

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publication date: 1785
• ISBN 10: 1408864541
• ISBN 13: 9781408864548
• Binding: Paperback