Paperback
The Lost Diaries
By Craig Brown
The Lost Diaries is a wide-ranging anthology of the world’s greatest diarists, each of them channelled onto paper through the considerable psychic force that is Craig Brown.
Arranged on a day-to-day basis, spread throughout an entire year, these diary extracts form a patchwork quilt of observation, reflection, contemplation and, above all, self-promotion. As the months unfold, different diarists offer their insights on the events that pass: John Prescott on going to Royal Ascot, Nigella Lawson on preparing Christmas lunch, W.G. Sebald on enjoying an ice lolly by the beach, Karl Lagerfeld on the need for an umbrella in Spring.
Among over 200 diarists featured are Martin Amis, Jordan, Germaine Greer, The Duchess of Devonshire, President Barack Obama, Philip Roth, HM the Queen, Heather Mills McCartney, Victoria Beckham, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sir Cecil Beaton, John Prescott, Mohamed Fayed, Harold Pinter, Yoko Ono, Barbara Cartland, Jilly Cooper, Christopher Ricks, Jeremy Clarkson, Jeanette Winterson, Sylvia Plath, Keith Richards, Maya Angelou and Frank McCourt.
The Lost Diaries is the first time all Craig Brown’s greatest parodies have been gathered together in one book. Arranged day-by-day, full of invigorating and sometimes shocking juxtapositions, they constitute a treasure-trove, choc-a-bloc with all the fantasies and illusions of our times.
”Has one of the funniest indexes of any recent title and is also among the few works to feature both Lord Rees-Mogg and the 1970’s rock chick Suzi Quatro” - Sunday Times
”'Craig Brown is a brilliant parodist. And here is a book full of his brilliant parodies… It’s superb. It’s glorious.” - Evening Standard
‘The mix of belly laughter, common sense and the wildest whimsy makes it a prize example of the English sense of humour at its finest, and confirms Brown as the master of language and linguistic nuance, and our greatest living satirist' Sunday Times -
'The most screamingly funny living writer … The republication rights should be acquired by the Gideons who will have it placed in a draw in every hotel room in the world', Five stars, Barry Humphries, Mail on Sunday -
”'Inspired … a comic masterstroke” - Daily Telegraph
”'On-the-money parodies…cumulatively they skewer the voices of these 'writers' in a funny, uncanny way. A fine display of a master parodist” - Financial Times
”'Pitch-perfect, laugh-out-loud parodies from our greatest living satirist” - Sunday Times, Must Reads
”'The amazing Craig Brown - the greatest satirist since Max Beerbohm” - Elaine Showalter, Guardian
”'A genius … in every instance, the skill of the parodist dwarfs any achievement attributable to his subject” - Auberon Waugh, Daily Telegraph
”'He is the comic writer the rest of us admire from afar, and envy beyond the bounds of reason. How does he do it?” - Markus Berkmann, Spectator
”'Britain’s wittiest satirist” - The Times