When Grandmama Fell Off the Boat: The Best of Harry Graham Inventor of Ruthless Rhymes (Methuen Humour Classics) - Softcover

Graham, Harry

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9780413141606: When Grandmama Fell Off the Boat: The Best of Harry Graham Inventor of Ruthless Rhymes (Methuen Humour Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0413141608 ISBN 13: 9780413141606

Publisher: Arrow (A Division of Random House Group), 1987

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'When Grandmama Fell Off The Boat' is an anthology of the hilarious creations of Harry Graham, one of the early 20th century's wittiest writers of light verse, stage show lyrics and articles. During his lifetime, Harry Graham had an outstanding reputation and was compared to Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll and W. S. Gilbert by The Times. He has also been credited with introducing 'sick' verse to America. Although the ever popular Ruthless Rhymes was republished in 1996, 'When Grandmama Fell Off The Boat' remains the only comprehensive selection of Graham's verse to have appeared since his death. The book is elegantly designed, the text complemented by delightful and amusing period illustrations by Fish, Fougasse, Ridgewell and others. The anthology also boasts an introduction by the late Miles Kington, as well as a foreword by Graham's daughter and fellow writer, Virginia. Graham's black humour is underpinned by his ability to relate common episodes with a sardonic twist. A father irritated by his crying infant finds peace and quiet by popping him in the Frigidaire and a man whose wife elopes with the chauffeur despairs of ever starting the car. These darkly comic soupcons of English life are timeless in their appeal.

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About the Author:

Harry Graham (1874-1936) was an establishment figure who didn't quite fit the mould. He started off conventionally enough with Eton, Sandhurst and the Coldstream Guards, but the irrepressible entertainer in him kept bursting out, and by 1910 he had become a full-time writer. He was engaged to the American actress Ethel Barrymore, great aunt of Drew Barrymore, but she added him to her list of spurned suitors, among them Winston Churchill. Four years later Graham married Dorothy Villiers. They had one daughter, Virginia, also a writer, whose correspondence with Joyce Grenfell was published in 2000.

Review:

'He is in the great tradition of Lear and Carroll and Gilbert and Belloc. At his best he easily ranks any of these.' --Jeremy Nicholas, The Ruthless Rhymer, BBC Radio 4

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