Les Dawson's Secret Notebooks: Gags, Routines, Sketches and Scripts

London: JR Books, 2007 9781906217198. Hardback. First Edition. Complete number line. Fine/VG. DW is price-clipped. Quarto 10½'' x 8¼''. Contains 192 printed pages of text with monochrome illustrations and photographs throughout. Original publisher's illustrated boards, lettered black on spine and covers. "'The wife gave me breakfast in bed this morning...it flew off the plate when she threw it. I didn't mind - there's something vaguely sensuous about a poached egg on quilt. I know why she was angry...I'd spilt cocoa all down her nightdress. Serves me right for wearing it.' The voice of the great Les Dawson, it has to be. Dawson, the comedian's comedian, is a man with a massive following in his lifetime and now a real cult hero. Who can forget the out-of tune piano playing, the mother-in-law jokes, the fast-fire gags and routines that shot from his mouth with apparent ease? Here now, selected and introduced by his widow Tracy, is a treasure-trove of unseen and unpublished Les Dawson material, culled from his notebooks and diaries. Clearly, for Les it was never easy or effortless, and just how hard he worked on, and honed, his material is clear from the boxes of hand-written gags and routines he left behind, each page funnier and more outrageous than the next. Heading after heading, is followed by pages of one-liners: I wouldn't Say she was a Fast Eater But...I wouldn't Say he was Mean, But...I Wouldn't Say She Was Thin But...And there are the Blankety Blank routines ('Some quiz shows come, some quiz shows go. ..this one is still waiting for a lift.') as well as the inventive letters, the radio and television routines, the silly drawings and crazy, off-the-wall stories. On top of all this, there are Les' often poignant diaries, from the early days when he was a Hoover salesman, struggling to make it on stage. This is a rich and fabulous feast indeed, and one that will be devoured.by Les Dawson's countless fans. It features never-before-published gags, routines, sketches and scripts. It has to be the funniest book of the year." .