CANR
WORK TITLE: HAVE YOU EATEN GRANDMA?
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Brandreth, Gyles Daubeney
BIRTHDATE: 3/8/1948
WEBSITE: http://www.gylesbrandreth.net/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: CANR 230
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born March 8, 1948, in Wuppertal, Germany; son of Charles Daubeney (a lawyer) and Alice (a teacher) Brandreth; married Michele Brown (a writer), June 8, 1973; children: Benet, Saethryd, Aphra.
EDUCATION:New College, Oxford, B.A., 1970.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, broadcaster, producer, politician, and publisher. Member of Parliament representing Chester, England, 1992-97, offices held include Financial Secretary to the Treasury, 1993-94, Secretary of State for National Heritage, 1994-95, Secretary of State for Health, 1995, government whip, 1995-96, Lord Commissioner of H.M. Treasury, 1996-97; Andre Deutsch, London, England, children’s book publisher; Whitaker’s Almanack, editorial consultant; National Teddy Bear Museum, Stratford-on-Avon, England, cofounder; National Scrabble Championships, founder; Sunday Telegraph Review, editor-at-large; Spears (game manufacturer), former member of board. Has presented television and radio programs in England, Australia, and the United States, including Sunday with Gyles Brandreth, LBC FM radio, London, England, Countdown, TV-am, That Mitchell and Webb Look, 2006, among many others; work in theatrical productions includes Son et Lumiere at Royal Greenwich, and The Little Hut, The Dame of Sark, and Dear Daddy in London’s West End; Oxford Theatre Festival, artistic director, 1974—; Speak-a-Poem, sponsor, 1984—. Has also appeared in musical theater and in Shakespeare productions. Chancellor of the University of Chester, 2017–.
AVOCATIONS:Longtime holder of world record for longest after-dinner speech (12 1/2 hours); former European Monopoly champion.
MEMBER:British Pantomime Association (founder, and director, 1971—), National Playing Fields Association (appeals chair, 1984-88, chair, 1989-93, vice president, 1993—).
WRITINGS
Author of Jokes Jokes Jokes, 1978, Pears Book of Words, 1980, and musical review, Zipp!, 2003. Author of columns in Honey, 1969-70, Manchester Evening News, 1970-72, and Woman, 1972-73. Author of children’s books, Operation Air Spyfly,Operation Earth Spyfly, Operation Sez Spyfly, and Operation Space Spyfly, all 1978, and Here Comes Golly, 1979. Contributor to magazines, including Spectator, Punch, Home and Garden, Nova, She, and Woman’s Own, and to newspapers. Editor of Isis.
Film rights have been sold for Max: The Boy Who Made a Million and Maisie: The Girl Who Lost Her Head.
SIDELIGHTS
Gyles Brandreth has had a remarkably varied career. He has served in the British Parliament, edited and written for various newspapers and magazines, appeared on and hosted numerous radio and television programs, and published some 250 books for adults and children. He created the National Scrabble Championships, was European Monopoly champion in 1974, and was represented in the Guinness Book of World Records for making the longest after-dinner speech in the world. In addition, he founded the National Teddy Bear Museum and has created greeting cards, wrapping paper, stationery, records, and children’s board games, including “Gyles Brandreth’s Fun and Games Diary,” “The Treasure Island Game,” “The Alice in Wonderland Game,” and “Eight Pantomime Cards.”
Speaking to Deborah Ross in the Independent, Brandreth explained why he tried to set the world’s record for longest after-dinner speech: “I did it for charity, initially. The record was three hours, and I did seven. But Nicholas Parsons was in the audience. Nicholas is very competitive. Nicholas then went out and broke my record. So I then had to break his.”
After appearing on and hosting various television and radio programs during the 1970s and 1980s, Brandreth found himself in politics in 1992 when he became a Conservative Member of Parliament for Chester, England. During his five years in the John Major government, Brandreth held several positions, including Financial Secretary to the Treasury and government whip. He explained to Ross that upon being elected, he “bought ten suits in grey, charcoal grey, light charcoal grey, dark charcoal grey.” Ross asked Brandreth if he regretted not having focused on a political career. “If I’d done that,” Brandreth noted, “I wouldn’t have done the things I wanted to do. I wanted to write novels, and did. I wanted to do fun things on telly, and did.”
While Brandreth has written many books over the years, his biography John Gielgud: An Actor’s Life received particular attention. Financial Times contributor Alastair Macaulay found that Brandreth’s account of Gielgud’s distinguished career as an actor and director for both films and stage plays is “as fresh as it is short.” Furthermore, Brandreth’s “critical opinions are shrewd, pithy and finely judged,” noted Macaulay. London Review of Books critic Frank Kermode called John Gielgud a “lively tribute” to the British actor.
Brandreth also gained attention for a pair of books dealing with the British royal family. In Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage the author (and acquaintance of the couple) traces the long history of that marriage. The two met in 1939, when Philip was eighteen and the future queen only thirteen. Philip had to battle court intrigue, for though he was a descendent of Queen Victoria, many thought him unsuitable for the role as consort to a queen. According to Brandreth, the marriage has proven a success not only because of mutual devotion, but also because of an understanding on Philip’s part of what is required of him as the husband of the queen of England. Brandreth also goes to great lengths to dispel any rumors of infidelity on the part of Philip, an attempt that is “as unconvincing as it is irritating,” according to Elizabeth Mellett in a Library Journal review. As a critic for Publishers Weekly noted: “The biggest surprise here is the portrayal of the royal couple as typical married folks.”
Brandreth created a kind of sequel to the story of the royal couple in his 2005 title, Charles and Camilla: Portrait of an Affair. The book is an attempt to portray the relationship between Charles, Prince of Wales, and Camilla Parker Bowles, a scandal that rocked the nation and still garners media attention, even after the marriage of the pair in 2005. Byron Rogers, reviewing Charles and Camilla in the Spectator, called the book “a magical mystery tour of royal shenanigans.”
Brandreth turns memoirist with his 2009 book Something Sensational to Read in the Train: The Diary of a Lifetime, a “satisfyingly bulky sample of Gyles Brandreth’s diaries,” according to Matthew Dennison writing in the Herald Scotland Online. The author once before published diary selections, Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries, May, 1990-May, 1997, which took the reader inside his years as a Conservative member of Parliament. The diary entries from Something Sensational to Read in the Train are much more extensive, taking the reader over the high and low points of Brandreth’s extraordinary career from 1959 to 2000 and introducing a cast of celebrity characters from Prince Philip to author Jeffrey Archer. Dennison noted of the selection: “Some diaries are discursive, others analytical, even more simply egotistical. Brandreth’s diaries are essentially chronicles of his own day-to-day existence, with the emphasis on action more than reflection. … He is a kindly and funny chronicler. He has a strong sense of himself and, at all times, of the task that lies ahead.” Less favorable was the assessment of Sunday Times Online contributor Robert Harris, who noted: “Unfortunately, the charm of [ Breaking the Code ] (the self-deprecating tone, the gallows humour, the novelty of an essentially frivolous man operating in a world of deadly-seriousness) does not survive” in this present selection.
The ever-versatile Brandreth has also penned volumes of a mystery series featuring British playwright Oscar Wilde as the accidental sleuth. Speaking with a contributor for the Shots website, Brandreth explained how the series came about. “Since I was a boy, I have been an avid admirer of both the works of Oscar Wilde and the adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” the author noted. Later, Brandreth discovered that Holmes’s creator, Conan Doyle, and Wilde were actually friends, having met in 1889. “It would be hard to imagine an odder couple,” Brandreth further remarked. Thereafter, he resolved to write a series of books featuring Wilde, and thus began the adventures of Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders (published in the United States as Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance ).
“My story begins on the afternoon of the day of Wilde and Conan Doyle’s first encounter,” Brandreth noted in the same interview. The story is narrated by Robert Sherard, who was the real-life biographer of Wilde and is supposedly writing late in life, recalling the events of the summer of 1889. Going to meet a young actress in a house in Westminster, Wilde finds instead the naked body of young boy whose throat has been slashed. The victim is a young male prostitute and artist’s model, Billy Wood (actually the inspiration for Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray). This gruesome scene sends him to Doyle, at the time becoming famous for his Sherlock Holmes book, Study in Scarlet, yet still a doctor in practice. When the two return, the scene of the crime has been tidied up and the body taken away. This intrigues Doyle and Wilde even more. “But Conan Doyle quickly discovers that when it comes to the art and craft of amateur sleuthing Oscar Wilde has very little to learn from Sherlock Holmes,” Brandreth reported to the interviewer for the Shots website. Indeed, the roles of Holmes and Watson are reversed, with Doyle playing the somewhat confused aid to the astute Wilde.
Independent reviewer Matthew Sweet characterized this first installment as “a locked-room mystery involving a rent boy, a razor blade, a severed head and a lot of spent wicks.” Booklist contributor Connie Fletcher had high praise for this first series novel, terming it “a first-class stunner” and commending the plotting, historical accuracy, and characterization of Wilde, “as entertaining as he is controversial.” Further praise came from BCF Book Reviews website contributor Kell Smurthwaite, who commented: “The story is exciting and so full of twists and turns that the reader is kept on the edge of their seat from start to finish.” Sweet, however, was less positive in his assessment, complaining: “Brandreth overexerts himself as he tries to cram Wilde’s best quips into the text and squeeze the murder-plot into gaps between documented events.” No such concerns plagued a Publishers Weekly reviewer, though, who felt that “Oscar Wilde makes a stylish sleuth in this clever series.”
In the 2008 addition to the series, Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death (published in the United States as Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder ), Wilde is presiding over a meeting of the Socrates Club in 1892, with other members in attendance such as Doyle and Bram Stoker. When they decide to play a murder game, which involves writing the name of a victim on a slip of paper and then attempting to deduce who wrote what, things go rather wrong. A string of actual murders results, and Wilde and Doyle are once again on the case, recorded faithfully by Sherard.
Reviewing this second entry in the “Oscar Wilde” series, Sunday Times contributor Lucy Atkins termed it “rather fun, if totally daft.” Booklist contributor Fletcher once again was highly impressed with the Wilde books, terming Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder “great entertainment.” Fletcher additionally commended the book’s “terrific period atmosphere, crisp writing style, and the flamboyant Wilde [which] make this series pitch-perfect.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer added to the praise, calling it an “intricate whodunit,” and a Kirkus Reviews critic concluded that the novel is “a delicious bagatelle, frothier and more imaginative than its predecessor.”
Brandreth sets his third series installment, Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile, in the period of 1881 to 1883, with Wilde on tour in the United States and visiting France. The novel manages to connect a gambling man Wilde encountered in Colorado with the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt, and a series of four murders that happen within the La Grange family, France’s premier thespian dynasty.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer commended this title, calling it an “engaging, well-researched mystery, with a clever plot and large cast of famous characters.” Similarly, Booklist contributor Connie Fletcher called this “one of the most consistently entertaining historical series starring a real-life sleuth.” Further praise was offered by a Kirkus Reviews writer who concluded: “Episodic and irrepressibly droll, Wilde’s third case benefits from a full-bodied cast of supporting characters and a looser narrative flow.” Similarly, Charles Green, writing in the Gay & Lesbian Review, called this an “excellent … whodunit.”
Wilde, Doyle, and Sherard are in action once again in Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers (published in the United States as Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders ). Here, with Wilde riding high on his fame in 1890, he accepts an invitation to a reception for the Prince of Wales held at the home of the Duke and Duchess of Albemarle. At the reception Wilde makes the acquaintance of a strange young man, an actor who claims to be a vampire. Later, when the Duchess is found dead with two seeming bite marks on her throat, Wilde is commissioned by the Prince of Wales to investigate the matter. He is aided in these inquiries by the usual cast, plus an expert on vampirism, the writer Bram Stoker.
A Publishers Weekly contributor was unimpressed with this series addition, finding it a “disjointed story, which leads to an unsatisfying conclusion.” Booklist reviewer Fletcher, however, found much more to like, calling Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders an “enthralling” work of fiction that is “marvelous on several levels,” not only for “bringing to life the last glittering decade of Wilde,” but also for providing “an intricate mystery.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor termed the book a “witty, if wildly implausible jaunt into the boys’ clubs of a different age.”
The fifth series installment, Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders, finds Wilde and Doyle meeting by chance at the spa, Bad Homburg. Doyle has brought a mountain of fan mail to go through, and Wilde lends a hand, never suspecting that they might actually find another hand–severed–amid this mail. They also discover a severed finger as well as a lock of hair, and it is evident that someone has posed a case for them to solve, one that leads them to Rome and the Vatican just as Pope Pius IX has died. Now they must puncture the veil of Church secrecy in order to get to the truth. A Kirkus Reviews critic had a varied assessment of Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders, noting that the “whole series is literary escapism of a high order, though with each episode the mystery seems to recede further in importance.”
In Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol, Wilde comes to the fore with Doyle only referred to occasionally. The novel begins in 1897, following Wilde’s release from Reading Gaol after serving two years’ hard labor for gross indecency with men. Having fled to Dieppe, Wile shares a drink with a stranger one night, recounting his evil days in the prison, including a stint of detective work when a warder is killed as well as the prison chaplain. A Reviewer’s Bookwatch contributor felt that “this book certainly provided the reader with a lot of insights, especially on how degrading the prisons were to the prisoners.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer also praised Brandreth’s description of the British penal system, and also noted that the author delivers a “complex mystery plot that only the most attentive reader will resolve correctly in advance of the denouement.” Booklist critic Connie Fletcher also had a high assessment of this installment, terming it “absolutely captivating and moving.”
Wilde and Doyle again team up in Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper, the seventh installment in the series. It is 1894, six years since the last victim of Jack the Ripper was found, and now another woman is discovered with the same savage wounds as those the Ripper caused. The police ask Wilde to use his contacts in the underworld to aid in the search for suspects. Meanwhile, the body count increases and in the end, Wilde and Doyle are able to offer a new solution to the identity of the Ripper.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer found this installment wanting, commenting: “Though Brandreth offers an innovative solution to the classic mystery of the Ripper’s identity, the slow pacing and Conan Doyle acting out of character detract from the reveal.” Writing in Booklist, Fletcher found more to like, terming this an “involving history-mystery.” Similarly, a Kirkus Reviews critic concluded: “Brandreth’s seventh Wilde mystery feels like two books in one: a crisp account of the Ripper murders and a droll roman a clef about the last years of the singular Wilde. As with the author’s earlier Wilde mysteries, the journey far overshadows the destination, and delightfully so.”
Brandreth returns to nonfiction in his 2019 work, Have You Eaten Grandma?, a disquisition on the importance of correct punctuation and grammar, as well as overall good English. Both humorous and opinionated, the book argues for better language use, railing against what the author sees as linguistic horrors and abominations. There are lessons in the use of the comma, correct word forms, and the difference between restrictive and non-restrictive adjective clauses, among a plethora of other topics.
A Kirkus Reviews critic termed this a “handbook for those who love precision in language and who are not going gentle into that good night.” The critic also noted, “Hope mixes with despair in this bittersweet cocktail of a writing/grammar guide.” Online London Guardian contributor Steven Poole also had praise for Have You Eaten Grandma?, commenting: “Many competent writers can do everything Brandreth recommends in the book, but would be hard-pressed to enunciate the rules in a clear and entertaining fashion. This is where Brandreth excels: he is brilliant, for instance, on the difference between the semicolon and the colon.” Poole added: “The book is also very funny, and often outright silly.” Similarly, a Portobello Book Blog reviewer observed: “As you might expect, the book, although quite technical at times, is very witty. It made me smile to hear how he did battle with his publishers over spelling and spacing of certain words and phrases.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Brandreth, Gyles, Under the Jumper, Robson (London, England), 1993.
Brandreth, Gyles, Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries, May, 1990-May, 1997, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1999.
Brandreth, Gyles, Something Sensational to Read in the Train: The Diary of a Lifetime, John Murray (London, England), 2009.
PERIODICALS
Best Sellers, December, 1982, review of More Joy of Lex: An Amazing and Amusing Z to A and A to Z of Words, p. 357.
Booklist, December 1, 1978, review of The Biggest Tongue Twister Book in the World, p. 613; February 1, 1980, review of The Last Word, p. 750; January 1, 1981, review of The Joy of Lex: An Amazing and Amusing Z to A and A to Z of Words, p. 604; April 15, 1982, review of The World’s Best Indoor Games, p. 1058; October 15, 1982, review of More Joy of Lex, p. 287; September 1, 1983, review of Great Theatrical Disasters, p. 16; May 1, 1984, review of John Gielgud: A Celebration, p. 1218; December 1, 1984, review of The Book of Solo Games, p. 475; January 1, 1985, review of Writing Secret Codes and Sending Hidden Messages, p. 637; June 15, 1987, review of The Big Book of Silly Riddles, p. 1597; November 1, 2007, Connie Fletcher, review of Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance, p. 29; August 1, 2008, Connie Fletcher, review of Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder, p. 46; July 1, 2009, Connie Fletcher, review of Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile, p. 39; April 1, 2011, Connie Fletcher, review of Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders, p. 34; May 1, 2013, Connie Fletcher, review of Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol, p. 37; March 1, 2019, Connie Fletcher, review of Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper, p. 29.
Book Report, September, 1984, review of John Gielgud: An Actor’s Life, p. 30; May, 1986, review of Writing Secret Codes and Sending Hidden Messages, p. 35; January, 1987, review of Pranks, Tricks, and Practical Jokes, p. 39.
Books, September, 1996, review of Who Is Nick Saint?, p. 12.
Books & Bookmen, December, 1984, review of The Christmas Book, p. 13.
Books for Your Children, autumn, 1986, review of Facts Factory, p. 7.
Book World, February 8, 1981, review of The Joy of Lex, p. 4; July 8, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 5.
British Book News, July, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 423; June, 1987, review of The Hiccups at Number Thirteen, p. 58.
Catholic Library World, May, 1986, review of A Game-a-Day Book, p. 280.
Childhood Education, May, 1985, review of The Biggest Tongue Twister Book in the World, p. 364.
Children’s Book Review Service, winter, 1981, review of A Game-a-Day Book, p. 42.
Choice, May, 1979, review of The Funniest Man on Earth: The Story of Dan Leno, p. 398; September, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 112.
Contemporary Review, January, 1994, review of The Politician’s Quotation Book, p. 56.
Curriculum Review, April, 1980, review of This Is Your Body, p. 124.
Drama, summer, 1983, review of Great Theatrical Disasters, p. 28.
Economist, December 11, 1982, review of Great Theatrical Disasters, p. 109.
Encounter, January, 1989, review of The Word Book, p. 53.
Film Quarterly, summer, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 31.
Films in Review, April, 1985, review of John Gielgud, p. 244.
Financial Times, May 26, 2001, Alastair Macaulay, “Drama of an Elegant Life,” p. 4.
Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, May-June, 2010, Charles Green, review of Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile, p. 44.
Growing Point, July, 1978, review of The Daft Dictionary, p. 3347; May, 1981, review of A Game-a-Day Book, p. 3895; November, 1985, review of The Ghost at Number Thirteen, p. 4536.
Independent (London, England), July 23, 2001, Deborah Ross, “Gyles Brandreth—Top of the Popinjays,” pp. S1-S2.
Junior Bookshelf, February, 1983, review of Big Book of Jokes, p. 19.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 283; July 15, 2008, review of Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder; August 1, 2009, review of Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile; February 1, 2011, review of Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders; May 1, 2012, review of Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders; February 1, 2019, review of Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper; June 15, 2019, review of Have You Eaten Grandma?.
Kliatt, spring, 1982, review of The World’s Best Indoor Games, p. 66; spring, 1986, review of Your Vital Statistics, p. 56; winter, 1986, review of The Book of Solo Games, p. 69; September, 1987, review of Word Games, p. 68.
Learning, April, 1986, review of The Great Book of Optical Illusions, p. 105.
Library Journal, April 1, 1982, review of The World’s Best Indoor Games, p. 742; November 1, 1982, review of More Joy of Lex, p. 2097; May 15, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 993; September 15, 2005, Elizabeth Mellett, review of Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage, p. 72.
London Review of Books, June 21, 2001, Frank Kermode, “Meaningless Legs,” p. 25.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, May 23, 1982, review of The World’s Best Indoor Games, p. 6; October 28, 1984, review of The Book of Solo Games, p. 13.
Magpies, July, 1992, review of The Slippers That Talked, p. 37; September, 1995, review of The Witch at Number Thirteen, p. 28.
New Statesman, December 4, 1981, review of How to Be Funny: An A to Z of Amazing and Astonishing Ways to Make People Laugh, p. 18; November 8, 1985, review of The Ghost at Number Thirteen, p. 26.
New York Times Book Review, June 19, 1977, review of Scrambled Exits: The Greatest Maze Book Ever, p. 47.
Observer (London, England), November 28, 1993, review of The Politician’s Quotation Book, p. 19.
Publishers Weekly, July 9, 1979, review of Brain-Teasers and Mind- Benders, p. 106; June 19, 1981, review of Total Nonsense Z to A, p. 100; September 10, 1982, review of More Joy of Lex, p. 68; February 28, 1986, review of Your Vital Statistics, p. 120; July 18, 1994, review of John Gielgud, p. 242; August 22, 2005, review of Philip and Elizabeth, p. 50; October 8, 2007, review of Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance, p. 38; July 7, 2008, review of Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder, p. 40; July 14, 2008, “Call of the Wilde: PW Talks with Giles Brandreth,” p. 46; July 13, 2009, review of Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile, p. 38; March 7, 2011, review of Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders, p. 47; March 18, 2013, review of Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol, p. 63; February 4, 2019, review of Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper, p. 157.
Punch, June 27, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 62.
Reviewer’s Bookwatch, November, 2013, review of Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol.
School Librarian, March, 1980, review of Pears Book of Words, p. 89; June, 1981, review of The Crazy Encyclopedia, p. 142; June, 1984, review of The Book of Solo Games, p. 185; March, 1985, review of Everyman’s Book of Children’s Games, p. 46; March, 1986, review of Everyman’s Classic Puzzles, p. 104; August, 1990, review of Everyman’s Modern Phrase and Fable, p. 126; May, 1996, reviews of The Mermaid at Number Thirteen and The Ghost at Number Thirteen, p. 60; summer, 1999, review of The Adventures of Bruno Bruin, p. 79.
School Library Journal, February, 1979, review of The Great Big Funny Book, p. 38; December, 1979, review of Brain- Teasers and Mind-Benders, p. 80, review of A Joke-a- Day Book, p. 81; April, 1980, review of Pranks, Tricks, and Practical Jokes, p. 104; September, 1980, “Seeing Is Not Believing,” p. 67; October, 1980, reviews of This Is Your Body, Sinbad’s Round the World Activity Book, Robin Hood’s Outdoor Activity Book, Cinderella’s Indoor Activity Book, and Robinson Crusoe’s Activity Book, p. 142; November, 1980, review of A Game-a-Day Book, p. 70; November, 1981, review of Total Nonsense Z to A, p. 88; December, 1983, review of The Super Joke Book, p. 63; October, 1984, review of Writing Secret Codes and Sending Hidden Messages, p. 154.
Science Books & Films, November, 1988, review of Fascinating Body Facts, p. 103.
Spectator, January 1, 1977, review of Pears Family Quiz Book, p. 7; June 5, 1999, Michael Simmonds, review of Breaking the Code, p. 36; November 5, 2005, Byron Rogers, “Not Bloody Likely,” review of Charles and Camilla: Portrait of an Affair, p. 70.
Sunday Times (London, England), May 18, 2008, Lucy Atkins, review of Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death.
Teaching Children Mathematics, April, 2002, review of Optical Illusion Flip Book: Astounding Optical Illusions Amazing Optical Tricks, p. 496.
Theatre Journal, December, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 559.
Time International, February 10, 2003, Chris Redman, “And Now for His Next Act,” p. 77.
Times Educational Supplement, September 22, 1978, reviews of Jokes Jokes Jokes and What Nonsense, p. 23; September, 19, 1980, review of Brain Power, p. 30; February 27, 1981, review of The Crazy Encyclopedia, p. 39; May 15, 1981, review of Big Book of Magic, p. 29; October 9, 1981, review of The Crazy Word Book, p. 29; December 10, 1982, review of What Do You Know?, p. 34; August 10, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 18; March 1, 1985, review of Bet You Can, Bet You Can’t, p. 29; November 1, 1985, review of The Big Book of Amazing Names, p. 26, review of The Ghost at Number Thirteen, p. 38; August 15, 1986, review of Everyman’s Classic Puzzles, p. 19; December 12, 1986, review of My Diary, p. 35; June 5, 1987, review of The Hiccups at Number Thirteen, p. 58; March 2, 1990, review of Everyman’s Modern Phrase and Fable, p. 38.
Times Literary Supplement, September 3, 1982, review of Wordplay, p. 952; December 7, 1984, review of John Gielgud, p. 1418; December 20, 1985, review of Cockburn’s A-Z of After-dinner Entertainment, p. 1453; November 26, 1993, review of The Politician’s Quotation Book, p. 32; July 23, 1999, Michael Harrington, review of Breaking the Code, p. 25; September 14, 2001, John Ure, review of Brief Encounters: Meetings with Remarkable People, p. 30.
West Coast Review of Books, September, 1984, review of More Joy of Lex, p. 59.
ONLINE
BCF Book Reviews, http://bcfreviews.wordpress.com/ (February 10, 2008), Kell Smurthwaite, review of Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders.
Blogcritics, http://blogcritics.org/ (June 29, 2011), Scott Butki, “Interview: Gyles Brandreth about His Novel, Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders.”
Fantastic Fiction, https://www.fantasticfiction.com/ (July 21, 2019), “Gyles Brandreth.”
Gyles Brandreth website, http://www.gylesbrandreth.net (July 21, 2019).
Herald Scotland Online, http://www.heraldscotland.com/ (November 9, 2009), Matthew Dennison, review of Something Sensational to Read in the Train.
Independent Online, http://www.independent.co.uk/ (May 13, 2007), Matthew Sweet, review of Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders.
Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/ (August 8, 2011), “Gyles Brandreth.”
London Guardian Online, https://www.theguardian.com/ (October 10, 2018), review of Have You Eaten Grandma?.
Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries website, http://www.oscarwildemurdermysteries.com (August 8, 2011), “Gyles Brandreth.”
Portobello Book Blog, https://portobellobookblog.com/ (October 23, 2018), review of Have You Eaten Grandma?.
Scotsman, https://www.scotsman.com/ (August 5, 2018), “Interview: ‘The Fringe Saved My Life’, says Gyles Brandreth.”
Shots, http:// www.shotsmag.co.uk/ (September 23, 2008), interview with Gyles Brandreth.
Sunday Times Online, http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ (November 1, 2009) Robert Harris, review of Something Sensational to Read in the Train.
Telegraph Online, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ (October 31, 2009), Nicholas Shakespeare, review of The Diary of a Lifetime.
Gyles Brandreth is a writer, broadcaster, actor, former MP and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, now Chancellor of the University of Chester and one of Britain's most sought-after award ceremony hosts and after-dinner speakers. A veteran of QI and Have I Got News For You, a reporter on The One Show and a regular on Just a Minute, his many books include The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries and two recent best-sellers: The 7 Secrets of Happiness and his celebration of good English, punctuation, spelling and grammar: Have You Eaten Grandma?
Gyles Brandreth
A former Oxford Scholar, President of the Oxford Union and MP for the City of Chester, Gyles Brandreth’s career has ranged from being a Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London’s West End.
A prolific broadcaster (in programmes ranging from Just a Minute and Wordaholics to QI and Have I Got News for You), an award-winning interviewer and columnist (principally for the Telegraph and Daily Mail), a novelist, children’s author and biographer, he has published two volumes of diaries: Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries (‘By far the best political diary of recent years, far more perceptive and revealing than Alan Clark’s’, The Times) and Something Sensational to Read in the Train: The Diary of a Lifetime (‘Witty, warm-hearted and deeply poignant’, Daily Mail).
He is the author of two acclaimed royal biographies: Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage and Charles & Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair, and a series of Victorian detective stories, The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries, now published in twenty-two countries around the world. His recent Sunday Times best-sellers include Word Play, a celebration of the English language, and The 7 Secrets of Happiness – No 1 on Amazon. His on-line course on Happiness is available from Gravy For The Brain together with a course co-authored with his son, rhetoric coach and barrister, Benet Brandreth QC, on Mastering Public Speaking. His one-man shows have won multiple five star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and tour regularly throughout the UK.
As a performer, Gyles Brandreth has been seen in the West End in Zipp! One hundred musicals for less than the price of one at the Duchess Theatre and on tour throughout the UK, and as Malvolio and the Sea Captain in Twelfth Night: The Musical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2011/12 he played Lady Bracknell in a new musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest and in 2017 appeared in Hamlet at the Park Theatre in London.
Gyles Brandreth is one of Britain’s busiest after-dinner speakers and award ceremony hosts. He has won awards himself, and been nominated for awards, as a public speaker, novelist, children’s writer, broadcaster (Sony and Royal Television Society), political diarist (Channel Four), journalist (British Press Awards), theatre producer (Olivier), and businessman (British Tourist Authority Come to Britain Trophy). He has featured on This Is Your Life and Desert Island Discs and is a former chairman and now vice-president of the National Playing Fields Association. In 2017 he succeeded the late Duke of Westminster as Chancellor of the University of Chester.
He is married to writer and publisher Michèle Brown, with whom he co-curated the exhibition of twentieth century children’s authors at the National Portrait Gallery and founded the award-winning Teddy Bear Museum now based at Newby Hall in North Yorkshire. His son, Benet, is a barrister, award-winning speaker, authority on rhetoric – www.artofrhetoric.com - and author of two acclaimed novels about Shakespeare's lost years: The Spy of Venice and The Assassin of Verona. His daughter, Aphra, is an environmental economist and local politician. With his daughter Saethryd and grandson Rory, he is the author of a compendium of family games, The Lost Art of Having Fun. With Saethryd, he has also created Novelty Knits, a celebration of the colourful jumpers he was noted for wearing on TV in the 1970s and 1980s.
Gyles Brandreth’s forebears include George R Sims (the highest-paid journalist of his day, who wrote the ballad Christmas Day in the Workhouse) and Jeremiah Brandreth (the last man in England to be beheaded for treason). His great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Brandreth, promoted ‘Brandreth’s Pills’ (a medicine that cured everything!) and was a pioneer of modern advertising and a New York state senator. Gyles Brandreth has been London correspondent for “Up to the Minute” on CBS News and his books published in the USA include the New York Times best-seller, The Joy of Lex, as well as The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries (Simon & Schuster) and The 7 Secrets of Happiness (Open Road Media).
Gyles Brandreth
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Gyles Brandreth
Brandreth at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
In office
11 December 1996 – 1 May 1997
Prime Minister
John Major
Preceded by
Michael Bates
Succeeded by
Graham Allen
Member of Parliament
for City of Chester
In office
9 April 1992 – 1 May 1997
Preceded by
Peter Morrison
Succeeded by
Christine Russell
Majority
1,101 (2.1%)
Personal details
Born
8 March 1948 (age 71)
Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Nationality
British
Political party
Conservative
Spouse(s)
Michèle Brown
Relations
Jeremiah Brandreth
George Robert Sims
Benjamin Brandreth
Benet Brandreth
Children
3
Alma mater
New College, Oxford
Brandreth's voice
Menu
0:00
from the BBC programme Desert Island Discs, 14 January 2011[1]
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth (born 8 March 1948) is an English writer, broadcaster, actor, and former Conservative Member of Parliament.
Contents
1
Early life
2
Television
3
Radio
4
Writing
5
Politics
6
Other activities
7
Personal life
8
Selected bibliography
8.1
Non-fiction
8.2
Fiction
9
References
10
External links
Early life[edit]
Brandreth was born in Wuppertal, Germany, where his father, Charles Brandreth, was serving as a legal officer with the Allied Control Commission.[2] After moving to London with his parents at the age of three, Brandreth was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle (as it is called today) in South Kensington, Bedales School in Petersfield, Hampshire, where he met his friend Simon Cadell, and New College, Oxford, where he met Rick Stein.[2]
He was President of the Oxford Union in Michaelmas term, 1969, and edited the university magazine Isis. He was described in a contemporaneous publication as "Oxford's Lord High Everything Else".[3] Christopher Hitchens suggested that Brandreth "set out to make himself into a Ken Tynan. Wore a cloak."[4] He became a theatre producer, politician, journalist, author and publisher as well as, later, a TV presenter.
Television[edit]
In the 1970s, Brandreth hosted the ITV children's show Puzzle Party.
He has appeared on Countdown more than 300 times, in Dictionary Corner, including Carol Vorderman's final episode in 2008, making more appearances than any other guest. He also appeared on TV-am. He was known for his collection of jumpers, of which some were sold in a charity auction in 1993.
In 2006, he appeared on the television series That Mitchell and Webb Look, on the fictional game show "Numberwang", satirising his appearances in Countdown's Dictionary Corner. In 2007, he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio play I.D.. From July to August 2009, he hosted the game show Knowitalls on BBC Two. In April 2010, he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Vote Now Show. He also made a cameo appearance as himself in Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd, in the episode "The Final Countdown".
A frequent guest on BBC television panel shows, he has appeared on four episodes of QI and six episodes of Have I Got News for You. He has also appeared in episodes of Channel 5's The Gadget Show, and is a contributor to the BBC's early evening programme The One Show. He has appeared in two episodes of the TV adaptation of Just A Minute, as part of the show's 45th anniversary. In 2013, he was a guest on the Matt Lucas Awards.
He appeared on Room 101 in 2005, while Paul Merton was host, successfully banishing the Royal Variety Performance and the British honours system into Room 101, saying that he would never accept an honour himself.[5] In 2013, he clarified that position, stating that he had "no fundamental objection to the honours system", and that he selected the honours system for Room 101 because he could "tell funny stories about it".[6]
Radio[edit]
Brandreth has presented programmes on London's LBC radio at various times since 1973, such as Star Quality. He frequently appears on BBC Radio 4's comedy panel game Just a Minute.[2] He has appeared on several episodes of Radio 4's political programme The Westminster Hour, explaining his thoughts on how to make the most of being a government minister. From 2003 to 2005 Brandreth hosted the Radio 4 comedy panel game Whispers.
In 2006, Brandreth appeared in the Radio 4 comedy programme Living with the Enemy which he co-wrote with comedian Nick Revell, in which they appear as a former Conservative government minister and a former comedian. In 2010 he broadcast a Radio 4 documentary about his great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Brandreth, the inventor of a medicine called "Brandreth's Pills". He is the host of the Radio 4 comedy panel show Wordaholics, first aired on 20 February 2012. He appeared on the Radio 4 programme The Museum of Curiosity in August 2017, to which he donated a button that was once owned by a famous actor.
Writing[edit]
Since the 1970s Brandreth has written various books about Scrabble, words, puzzles and jokes, for adults and children. He wrote an authorised biography of actor John Gielgud, as well as lipogrammic reworks of Shakespeare. In the 1980s, Brandreth wrote scripts for Dear Ladies, the television programme featuring Hinge and Bracket. Brandreth is also the creator of a stage show called Zipp! which enjoyed success at the Edinburgh Festival and had a short run in the West End.[7]
Brandreth has kept a diary. In 1999, he published his diaries between 1990 and 1997, written during his days as a politician, called Breaking the Code.[8]
In September 2004, Brandreth's book on the marriage of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage was published.[2] In July 2005, he published a second book on the Royal Family, entitled Charles and Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair, which concerns the three-decade love affair between Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.[2]
Brandreth has written a series of seven works of historical fiction called The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries, in which Oscar Wilde works with both Robert Sherard and Arthur Conan Doyle.[9]
Over the years he has written and appeared in a number of comedic one-man shows and toured in a number of venues. Shows have included The One-to-One Show in 2010–2011, Looking for Happiness in 2013–2014 and Word Power in 2015–2016.[10]
Brandreth has also written a book entitled Have You Eaten Grandma? which is about the English language and correct grammar.[11]
Politics[edit]
Brandreth was a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), representing the City of Chester, from 1992 to 1997. He proposed a Private Member's Bill which became law as the Marriage Act 1994. In 1995, he was appointed to a junior ministerial position as a Lord of the Treasury, with his role being essentially that of a whip.[12][13]
He later published a book of his diaries from his time as a whip, Breaking the Code. After his parliamentary career, he broadcast some of his reminiscences on BBC radio as Brandreth on Office and The Brandreth Rules in 2001, 2003 and 2005.
In August 2014, Brandreth was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.[14]
Other activities[edit]
He is a former European Monopoly champion,[15] and President of the Association of British Scrabble Players,[16] having organised the first British National Scrabble Championship in 1971.
He is also the President of The Oscar Wilde Society. The society was founded in September 1990, by a group of fans of Wilde and his work, it is a non-profit organisation that aims to increase knowledge, enjoyment and study of Wilde’s life, personality and works. It organises lectures, readings and discussions, as well as visits to places connected with him.[17][18]
Brandreth hosts an annual Oscar Wilde party to celebrate the writer's birth. Guests have included Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Derek Jacobi, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Julian Fellowes.[17][19] The venues are often places of interest in Wilde's life, for example the Langham Hotel where A Picture of Dorian Gray was commissioned.[20] In August 2005, he appeared in a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Edinburgh Festival.
He is an after-dinner speaker, and he held the world record for the longest continuous after-dinner speech, at twelve-and-a-half hours, done as a charity stunt. With his wife, he founded the Teddy Bear museum. Located in Stratford-upon-Avon for 18 years, it was relocated to the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon, London. As of 2016, it is on display at Newby Hall in Yorkshire.[21] He is a patron of the National Piers Society, and vice-president of charity Fields in Trust (formerly the National Playing Fields Association).
In 2014, Brandreth was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) from the University of Chester,[22] and was appointed the University's Chancellor in December 2016.[23]
Personal life[edit]
Brandreth married Michèle Brown, a writer and publisher, in Westminster in 1973.[24][25] They reside in Barnes, Southwest London[26] and have three grown-up children: Benet, a barrister; Saethryd, a journalist; and Aphra, a former government economist and now financial director of a veterinary business,[27] and who is mother of their first grandchild, Kiyo.[28] Aphra is the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives in the constituency of Kingston and Surbiton.[27]
Selected bibliography[edit]
Non-fiction[edit]
Created in Captivity (1972), a study of prison reform
The Funniest Man on Earth (1974), a biography of Dan Leno
The Joy of Lex: How to Have Fun with 860,341,500 Words (1980), ISBN 0-688-01397-X
"Everyman's Indoor Games" (1981), ISBN 0-460-04456-7
The Book of Mistaikes (1982), ISBN 0-7088-2194-4
The Scrabble Brand Puzzle Book (1984), ISBN 0-671-50536-X
A Guide to Playing the Scrabble Brand Crossword Game (1985), ISBN 0-671-50652-8
The Great Book of Optical Illusions (1985), ISBN 0-8069-6258-5
"Everyman's Classic Puzzles" (1986) , ISBN 0-4600-2466-3
The Scrabble Companion (1988), ISBN 0-09-172698-0 (with Darryl Francis)
World Championship Scrabble (1992), ISBN 0-550-19028-7 (with Darryl Francis)
Under the Jumper: Autobiographical Excursions (1993). ISBN 0-86051-894-9
Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries, 1992–97 (1999), ISBN 0-297-64311-8
Brief Encounters: Meetings with Remarkable People (2001), ISBN 1-902301-95-1
John Gielgud: An Actor's Life (2001), ISBN 0-7509-2690-2
The Biggest Kids Joke Book Ever! (2002), ISBN 0-233-05062-0
The Joy of Lex: An Amazing and Amusing Z to A and A to Z of Words (2002), ISBN 1-86105-399-1
The Word Book (2002), ISBN 1-86105-398-3
Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage (2004), ISBN 0-7126-6103-4
Charles and Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair (2005), ISBN 1-84413-845-3
The 7 Secrets of Happiness (2013) ISBN 978-1780722047
Word Play (2015) ISBN 978-1-473-62029-2
Fiction[edit]
Here Comes Golly (1979) ISBN 978-0-7207-1098-4[29]
Who is Nick Saint? (1996). ISBN 978-0-3168-7979-8
Venice Midnight (1999). ISBN 0-7515-2658-4
Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders (2007), ISBN 978-0-7195-6930-2 (American title: Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance)
Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death (2008), (American title: Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder) ISBN 978-0719569609
Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile (2009) ISBN 978-1416534853
Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers (2010) (American title: Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders)
Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders (2011)
Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol (2012)
Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper (2019)
Gyles Brandreth
(Gyles Daubeney Brandreth)
(b.1948)
Father of Benet Brandreth
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth is a an author, broadcaster and former Conservative Member of Parliament. After having moved to London from Germany with his parents at the age of three, Brandreth was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Bedales School and New College, Oxford. He rose to the Presidency of the Oxford Union in 1970, also editing the University magazine, Isis. At Oxford, he was a contemporary of Christopher Hitchens, Robert Jackson, William Waldegrave, Edwina Currie, Stephen Milligan, John Scarlett, William Blair, Bill Clinton and John Redwood. He went on to become a theatre producer, journalist, author and publisher as well as, later, turning TV presenter.
Genres: Children's Fiction, Historical Mystery
New Books
April 2019
(hardback)
Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper
(Oscar Wilde, book 7)
Series
No.13
The Ghost At No.13 (1985)
The Hiccups At No.13 (1987)
The Mermaid At No.13 (1989)
Hullababloo At No.13 (1992)
Mermaid at No.13 / Hiccups at No.13 (omnibus) (1994)
The Witch At No.13 (1995)
The Monsters At No.13 (1996)
Slippers
The Slippers That Talked (1990)
The Slippers That Sneezed (1995)
The Slippers That Answered Back (1996)
Secret Notebook
My Secret Notebook: Aged 7 (1996)
My Secret Notebook: Aged 8 (1996)
My Secret Notebook: Aged 9 (1996)
Bruno Bruin
Adventures of Bruno Bruin (1998)
Bruno Bruin Discovers America (1999)
Tales of the Tamworth Two
The Great Escape (1998)
Two Little Pigs Make Friends (1998)
Wanted: Two Little Pigs (1998)
Tales of Mouse Village
Amanda Mouse and the Birthday Cake (1999)
Jack Mouse and the Scarecrow (1999)
Matt Mouse and the Surprise Party (1999)
Welcome To Mouse Village (1999)
Matt Mouse and the Big Surprise (2000)
Myrtle Mouse and the Naughty Twins (2000)
Oscar Wilde
1. Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders (2007)
aka Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance
2. Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death (2008)
aka Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder
3. Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile (2009)
4. Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers (2010)
aka Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders
5. Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders (2011)
6. Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol (2012)
7. Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper (2019)
Novels
Who Is Nick Saint? (1996)
Venice Midnight (1998)
Jack the Ripper: Case Closed (2017)
Plays
Aladdin (1971)
Cinderella (1971)
Mother Goose (1973)
Picture Books
Operation Air Spyfile (1978)
Operation Earth Spyfile (1978)
Operation Sea Spyfile (1978)
Operation Space Spyfile (1978)
The Story of Hey Diddle Diddle (1979)
Story of Humpty Dumpty (1979)
Here Comes Golly! (1979)
The Rock Penguins (2000)
Chapter Books
Spy School (1981)
Max, the Boy Who Made a Million (1996)
Nattie and Nuffin (1996)
Maisie, the Girl Who Lost Her Head (1999)
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth is an English theatre producer, actor, politician, journalist, author and TV presenter. Born in Germany, he moved to London at the age of three and, after his education at New College, Oxford, he began his career in television.
Interview: ‘The Fringe saved my life’, says Gyles Brandreth
Gyles and Benet Brandreth. The elder celebrates live theatre from the 1950s to the Kardashians, while the younger offers a bravura display of wordsmithery. Picture: Greg Macvean
Kate Copstick
Published: 07:30
Sunday 05 August 2018
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Gyles Brandreth lauds ‘egalitarian Edinburgh’ and relates anecdotes about Laurence Olivier and Bernard Manning as he and his award-winning son Benet prepare to stage shows
We are in the chambers of Benet Brandreth QC, son of Gyles. Brandreths père et fils are surely the most accomplished and gilded of the genre since the Dumas duo. We are taking tea and Brandreth the Elder is recounting a tale of sharing a bath with Julian Fellowes – “he is the only Oscar winner with whom I have shared a bath” muses Gyles – as a small boy. I ask if, from that bath, he imagined things ending up the way they have.
“No,” he answers with admirable honesty, “I thought I would be Prime Minister. But people had different ideas – they thought, ‘No! He is going to do better upstairs at the Pleasance Courtyard’. Life has not turned out as I hoped it would.” But if anyone can take sour grapes and turn them into an excellent claret, Brandreth can. Arguably the most delightful PM we never had is unequivocal in his love of Edinburgh. “As you know, Edinburgh saved my life,” he says crisply.
I suspect no-one except family will ever have seen quite how dark was Brandreth’s personal “dark night of the soul” after the 1997 election. “After I lost my seat, Michelle [his wife] said, ‘Come on, you know when one door closes… it is shut. What do you want to do now?’ And that is when I thought, I want to do a musical.” So he did 100 musicals.
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In 90 minutes. Zipp! was a huge Fringe success. “No-one seemed to be aware of what a Conservative MP was because they didn’t have any. So there was no hostility as there was in England. Mr Blair comes along and we were out… and there was quite a… legacy. But we arrived in Edinburgh and here was this extraordinary place where there were shows for six-year-olds and there was Nicholas Parsons… and they were all equal… students, seasoned professionals, world famous stars and nobodies. It is a proper egalitarian society.”
• READ MORE: Comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean gets personal in new Fringe show
Huge as Zipp! was for the Fringe, it was even huger for Gyles. “ It completely changed my life. The tights, the make-up – there was a black market in the tickets ! I met Ian McKellen queueing for returns and he said, ‘Are you wearing your tights under your trousers?’ and I said, ‘How on earth did you guess that?’ and he said, ‘Because I’m wearing mine.’ He wore suspenders to the show secretly, to show support, he told me.”
Brandreth the Younger might not have persuaded theatrical aristocracy into cross dressing, but his 2011 Fringe debut, The Brandreth Papers, received not only five stars from The Scotsman, but also the prestigious Malcolm Hardee Award for the Act Most Likely To Make A Million Quid. “Sadly, not quite there yet,” he says.
Given his elevation to silk this year and a burgeoning intellectual law practice coupled with regular engagements to teach the art of rhetoric at the RSC and a new book out, one feels it is only a matter of time. “It has,” he says cheerily, “allowed me to describe myself as ‘the award-winning’ Benet Brandreth.” What drew him back to the Gilded Balloon after a seven-year hiatus? “Child care opportunity,” he replies, and Brandreth Snr’s brows shoot into a still luxuriant hairline.
“This is the first I am hearing about child care duties,” he says. “The Scotsman has a scoop! It is exhausting to be giving one’s all in the theatre, my first duty is to my paying public, of course! And I shall be spending my days handing out flyers,” – he sighs a grandfatherly sigh – “possibly with a couple of children in tow, if they are ready to hand out flyers, until the sold-out notices go up.” Benet seems to see no legal impediment to the use of his offspring as marketing tools, and Grandpa continues: “This year’s show is Brexit-free, Trump-free, and MeToo-free – a celebration of the magic of live theatre from the 1950s to the Kardashians.” I choke on my tea. “Oh yes, me and Kourtney Kardashian.”
I am treated to a few genuinely hilarious tales from the show involving Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave and Bernard Manning. Separately, of course. Brandreth does not drop names, he turns them into filigree baubles and launches them at you. I try to persuade him to include his personal MeToo moment involving a lot of alcohol, a hot tub and legendary entertainer Jimmy Edwards. We shall see.
• READ MORE: Interview: Dylan Moran brings new show Dr Cosmos to the Fringe
Lest he does not include it for reasons of modesty, let me tell you of his Derek Jacobi moment, which occurred in the foyer of the Park Theatre, after Simon Evans and David Aula’s three-person, 90-minute Hamlet : Benet as the Dane, Gyles as Polonius, Ghost and Claudius and Benet’s wife, American actress Kosha Engler, as practically everything else. As the three left the theatre post-show, their path was blocked by Jacobi, who stood there applauding.
Edinburgh named one of the world's most serious 'overtourism hotspots'
“I am making the image my phone wallpaper,” says Benet. The thinking person’s Hamlet had come, unannounced, with his partner, sat at the back and enjoyed the show so much he has been instrumental in getting it booked to play Elsinore itself. Should you be unable to get to Denmark for the performance, there is, Benet tells me, a virtual reality version of the production, in which, should you look over your shoulder, you can see Dame Eileen Atkins sitting behind you.
Benet’s own show promises another bravura display of wordsmithery. And metaphorical ramekins. It sounds very much like a deliciously intellectual Red Bastard. “We will agree with the most appalling things if some charismatic, stunningly good-looking man tells us to,” says the charismatic, stunningly good-looking Brandreth Jnr.
He continues, telling me that we, the audience, will become frogs in his figurative frying pan and putty in his hands. If he is half this persuasive in court, he could undoubtedly patent air should Monsanto ever decide so to do.
For now the pair are all about marketing. There is discussion of a reduction for anyone bringing their own (actual) ramekins to Benet’s show, a double bill discount, and special deals for fathers and sons coming along to the shows. But the Brandreths are a special deal all on their own. The Olivier anecdote might be the most you will laugh all month.
• Gyles Brandreth: Break A Leg, Pleasance Courtyard until 26 August; Benet Brandreth: A Hero For Our Times, Gilded Balloon Teviot, until 27 August
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth is an English theatre producer, actor, politician, journalist, author and TV presenter. Born in Germany, he moved to London at the age of three and, after his education at New College, Oxford, he began his career in television. He went from presenting Puzzle Party in the 1970s, to appearing in Countdown's Dictionary Corner for over 300 episodes. His career has since encompassed becoming an MP and appearing regularly on TV and radio, but writing is his true passion. His past books include; Word Play, Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations and Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries.
QUOTE:
Another handbook for those who love precision in language and who are not going gentle into that good night.
Hope mixes with despair in this bittersweet cocktail of a writing/grammar guide.
Brandreth, Gyles: HAVE YOU EATEN GRANDMA?
Kirkus Reviews. (June 15, 2019):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Brandreth, Gyles HAVE YOU EATEN GRANDMA? Atria (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 8, 13 ISBN: 978-1-982127-40-4
Another handbook for those who love precision in language and who are not going gentle into that good night.
Brandreth, a British radio personality, former Member of Parliament, and author of the Oscar Wilde mystery series (Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper, 2019, etc.), skates lightly across the ice of his subject, offering some occasional humor (see the title). Like other books on the subject, this one assumes that most people care about being "correct" (do they?). The author writes in such a way that readers who already understand grammar, usage, and punctuation will best comprehend his lessons about subordinate clauses, restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers, the use of apostrophes, and the like. On some issues, Brandreth stands rather firm ("alright" is not all right); on others, he feels the winds of change and realizes the end is near for, say, the difference between "who" and "whom." The author pauses occasionally to comment on the differences between English in the U.K. and in America. His text also features long lists of various sorts: the meanings of prefixes and suffixes, the differences between spelling in British and American English, words that writers can confuse ("affect" and "effect," "complement" and "compliment"), and common internet acronyms. Brandreth spends an inordinate amount of time on spelling, perhaps a superfluous endeavor in a time when many people are carrying around unabridged dictionaries on their phones. He urges his readers--especially those who wish to write--to increase their vocabularies and to read a lot (good advice). He concludes the main part of his text with some advice from some notable writers, including George Orwell, Martin Amis, William Safire, and Gyles Brandreth. In a postscript, the author provides a brief grammar lesson, explaining such things as parts of speech, misplaced and dangling modifiers, and transitive and intransitive verbs.
Hope mixes with despair in this bittersweet cocktail of a writing/grammar guide.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Brandreth, Gyles: HAVE YOU EATEN GRANDMA?" Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2019. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A588726906/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f34d4ddc. Accessed 10 July 2019.
QUOTE:
involving history-mystery.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A588726906
Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper
Connie Fletcher
Booklist. 115.13 (Mar. 1, 2019): p29.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper. By Gyles Brandreth. Apr. 2019.368p. Pegasus, $25.95 (9781643130217).
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle plays Watson to Oscar Wilde's Sherlock Holmes in Brandreth's lively series, which uses the device of having Doyle write up their adventures years later. Doyle's perspective as a companion to Wilde--very different in values and habits, enchanted and baffled by Wilde--provides great insights into Wilde (and the friends' dialogue works in many of Wilde's epigrams). It makes sense that Brandreth would put the incisive Wilde and the more meticulous Dr. Doyle together as amateur detectives; each plays to the other's strengths. This, the seventh in the series, is set in 1894, six years since what police believed to be the last victim of Jack the Ripper was found. Then another woman is found savagely murdered in a way peculiar to the Ripper. Chief Constable Macnaghten (who actually lived on the same street as Wilde) asks Wilde to use his extensive contacts in the underworld to unearth suspects. Wilde and Doyle embark on the investigation, more killings follow (ever closer to Wilde's home), and a promising new theory of the Ripper's identity closes this involving history-mystery. --Connie Fletcher
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Fletcher, Connie. "Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2019, p. 29. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A579538389/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d029afb3. Accessed 10 July 2019.
QUOTE:
Though Brandreth offers an innovative solution to the classic mystery of the Ripper's identity, the slow pacing and Conan Doyle acting out of character detract from the reveal
Gale Document Number: GALE|A579538389
Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper
Publishers Weekly. 266.5 (Feb. 4, 2019): p157.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper
Gyles Brandreth. Pegasus Crime, $25.95 (368p) ISBN 978-1-64313-021-7
In 1894, the powers-that-be fear that a newspaper is about to revive the rumor that Jack the Ripper was a royal, in Brandreth's subpar seventh whodunit pairing Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle (after 2013's Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol). That concern leads Chief Constable Melville Macnaghten to seek Wilde's help in finally identifying the Ripper, as the aesthete knows most of the suspects on Macnaghten's short list. But before the policeman can discuss the situation with Wilde, an unidentified woman is killed, mutilated, and left in an alley near where both men live. Wilde and Conan Doyle agree to help and work their way through the short list, which includes legendary actor Richard Mansfield, even as a second murder indicates that the Ripper has resumed his bloody work. Though Brandreth offers an innovative solution to the classic mystery of the Ripper's identity, the slow pacing and Conan Doyle acting out of character detract from the reveal. Series fans will hope for a return to form next time. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper." Publishers Weekly, 4 Feb. 2019, p. 157. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A575752686/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b2717508. Accessed 10 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A575752686
Brandreth, Gyles: OSCAR WILDE AND THE RETURN OF JACK THE RIPPER
QUOTE:
Brandreth's seventh Wilde mystery feels like two books in one: a crisp account of the Ripper murders and a droll roman a clef about the last years of the singular Wilde. As with the author's earlier Wilde mysteries, the journey far overshadows the destination, and delightfully so.
Kirkus Reviews. (Feb. 1, 2019):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Brandreth, Gyles OSCAR WILDE AND THE RETURN OF JACK THE RIPPER Pegasus Crime (Adult Fiction) $25.95 4, 2 ISBN: 978-1-64313-021-7
After a string of sleuthing successes, has the Dynamic Victorian Duo met its match in the most formidable criminal of the era? Silly question.
Narrating in an appropriately plummy first person, Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle relates his latest adventure with peerless wit Wilde (Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol, 2012, etc.), which begins when drunken Wilde, making no secret of the fact that his financial situation is dire, visits the author on the first day of 1894 to offer holiday wishes and entice him into another investigative romp. The pair hook up with Chief Constable Macnaghten of the Metropolitan Police, who's tracking a malefactor whose modus operandi unnervingly recalls that of the infamous Jack the Ripper. The discovery of a new victim five years after the initial spate of killings has raised fears of a return, and the fact that the murder occurred not in Whitechapel but in the more affluent Chelsea neighborhood raises additional questions. Wilde and Doyle's leisurely probe begins with a close study of the five verified Ripper murders from the previous decade. The duo's interrogation of suspects and witnesses does not preclude entertaining detours like a trip to the circus with Oscar's wife and two sons. They rub elbows with Bram Stoker and Lewis Carroll. While they don't publicly expose the identity of the serial killer, they bear witness to another of his crimes, and Wilde makes a compelling case for his identity.
Brandreth's seventh Wilde mystery feels like two books in one: a crisp account of the Ripper murders and a droll roman a clef about the last years of the singular Wilde. As with the author's earlier Wilde mysteries, the journey far overshadows the destination, and delightfully so.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Brandreth, Gyles: OSCAR WILDE AND THE RETURN OF JACK THE RIPPER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2019. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A571549218/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cf093cbf. Accessed 10 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A571549218
QUOTE:
Absolutely captivating and moving
Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol
Connie Fletcher
Booklist. 109.17 (May 1, 2013): p37.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol. By Gyles Brandreth. May 2013.352p.Touchstone, paper, $16 (9781439153758); e-book, $ I 1.66 (9781439172315).
On May 25, 1895, while Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest was playing to packed houses in the West End, the author himself was led from the Old Bailey into Newgate Prison and, finally, to Reading Gaol, where he served a two-year sentence for his "immoral" affair with Lord Alfred Douglas (the theater managers, Brandreth informs us, removed Wilde's name from the playbills and posters so as not to offend the public but kept taking in the profits).This sixth installment of Brandreth's series, in which Wilde and his real-life friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle often team up to solve mysteries, may well be the best of a consistently terrific lot. For one thing, this book has Wilde narrating in the first person; earlier, the series' conceit was that Wilde's biographer, Robert Sherard, wrote these stories to be published after his own death. This last is as "dictated" by Wilde, and Brandreth captures both the witty and the remorseful author without sounding at all false or forced. The subject itself, which focuses on Victorian prison conditions--public lashings, hard labor, and solitary confinement (and the odd detail like the fact that prisoners were given two books, the Bible and The Pilgrim's Progress)--is absorbing, especially delivered from Wilde's perspective. Two murders occur along the way, and Wilde is called upon to help solve them, but they take a backseat to the central story of Wilde's suffering and redemption in prison. Absolutely captivating and moving.--Connie Fletcher
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Fletcher, Connie. "Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol." Booklist, 1 May 2013, p. 37. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A332021820/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=956db3b2. Accessed 10 July 2019.
QUOTE:
complex mystery plot that only the most attentive reader will resolve correctly in advance of the denouement.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A332021820
Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol
Publishers Weekly. 260.11 (Mar. 18, 2013): p63.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol
Gyles Brandreth. S&S/Touchstone, $16 trade
paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-4391-5375-8
After two subpar outings (most recently 2012's Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders), Brandreth returns to form with his outstanding sixth
Victorian whodunit, making the most of a difficult but intriguing premise. What if Oscar Wilde, while held between 1895 and 1897 in Reading Gaol, used his superior intellect to try to solve multiple murders at the prison? Earlier, at Wandsworth in London, an especially cruel warder dropped dead of uncertain causes in Wilde's cell just before the disgraced playwright and wit was to be transferred. To Wilde's shock, another warder dies at his new prison, the first of several mysterious deaths there. Brandreth smoothly integrates details of Wilde's tormented existence behind bars and the sadism of' the British penal system at the time into a complex mystery plot that only the most attentive reader will resolve correctly in advance of the denouement. Agent: Ed Victor. Ed Victor Ltd. (U.K.) (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol." Publishers Weekly, 18 Mar. 2013, p. 63. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A323348594/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=48b8cd62. Accessed 10 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A323348594
QUOTE:
The whole series is literary escapism of a high order, though with each episode the mystery seems to recede further in importance.
Brandreth, Gyles: OSCAR WILDE AND THE VATICAN MURDERS
Kirkus Reviews. (May 1, 2012):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2012 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Brandreth, Gyles OSCAR WILDE AND THE VATICAN MURDERS Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (Adult Fiction) $14.00 5, 8 ISBN: 978-1-4391-5373-4
When someone sends the creator of a legendary sleuth a severed hand, the game is afoot! After a rhapsodic 1877 letter from Oscar Wilde to his devoted mother concerning the wonders of Rome, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sets out to narrate the tale in chief, beginning 15 years later at a Homburg spa. Doyle is flush with success, Wilde decidedly less so, though critically celebrated, and the duo enjoys a friendly, albeit barbed rivalry. Oscar relishes the region's sensuous delights, but for Doyle this will be a working vacation. He brings an Everest of fan mail to answer, clearly triggering Wilde's envy. Inside one package, postmarked Rome, they find a severed hand. Another, smaller package from Rome contains a finger, which they at first mistake for a cigar. Doyle advises proceeding carefully, but Wilde, with brio, convinces him to "act recklessly." Indeed, a delightfully dangerous adventure may be just what the doctor ordered for the weary Doyle. So it's off to Rome. On the lengthy train ride, the pair shares confidences from their past and meet nervous Martin Sadler and his effervescent sister Irene (a name that should be familiar to fans of Sherlock Holmes). Tea at the Vatican with the influential circolo inglese proves a turning point in the mystery, which involves precious jewels and deceased Pontiffs. Brandreth's fifth Oscar Wilde caper (Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders, 2011, etc.) floats on a cushion of bubbly banter and droll period references. The whole series is literary escapism of a high order, though with each episode the mystery seems to recede further in importance.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Brandreth, Gyles: OSCAR WILDE AND THE VATICAN MURDERS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2012. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A288145998/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=40fed218. Accessed 10 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A288145998
QUOTE:
this book certainly provided the reader with a lot of insights, especially on how degrading the prisons were to the prisoners.
Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol
Reviewer's Bookwatch. (Nov. 2013):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol
Gyles Brandreth
Touchstone
c/o Simon & Schuster
1230 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10020
9781439153758, $16.00 (PB), 301 pp, www.amazon.com
In previous entries in this series Oscar Wilde acted as the detective and Arthur Conan Doyle the role of Dr. Watson. In this novel, Conan Doyle is present only by reference, while Oscar Wilde occupies the entire plot since it really is biographical, beginning with his incarceration for two years at hard labor, and describes the horrors of the English penal system at that time. Whatever mystery is to be solved is left for an astonishing ending.
The novel begins with Oscar Wilde, having fled England because of his disgrace, sitting at a cafe in Dieppe where he is confronted by a stranger who says he wishes to write a book about the murderers Wilde met in prison, and then flashes back to the author's experiences while jailed and vivid descriptions of how the prisons were run and the treatment of the prisoners in great detail.
This is the sixth novel in the series, and the author promises several more, hopefully more like the predecessors to Reading Gaol which were a lot more pertinent to the theme, although this book certainly provided the reader with a lot of insights, especially on how degrading the prisons were to the prisoners. It is amazing, really, that Wilde, on the brink of despair and possible madness, retained not only his deductive abilities, but was able to write such a gem as The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Recommended.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol." Reviewer's Bookwatch, Nov. 2013. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A350232465/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=66338cab. Accessed 10 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A350232465
QUOTE:
Many competent writers can do everything Brandreth recommends in the book, but would be hard pressed to enunciate the rules in a clear and entertaining fashion. This is where Brandreth excels: he is brilliant, for instance, on the difference between the semicolon and the colon." Poole added, "The book is also very funny, and often outright silly.
Have You Eaten Grandma? by Gyles Brandreth review – good grammar, with jokes
The former Conservative MP has written an entertaining guide to how to write properly, with an anecdote about the Queen’s loo breaks thrown in
Steven Poole
Wed 10 Oct 2018 10.00 BST
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Gyles Brandreth counsels his audience to read ‘the rappers’ as well as Jane Austen.
Photograph: John D Mchugh/AFP/Getty Images
I
t beggars belief today, but Gyles Brandreth comes from a near-mythical time when a media-friendly MP could also be an intelligent and literate person with a broad cultural hinterland. Now the colourfully sweatered stalwart of Countdown and organiser of the first British Scrabble championships has bounded ebulliently into the rich market for books about how to write proper. Naturally, I took up my mechanical pencil and prepared to festoon the margins with proofreading marks.
I was in for a pleasant surprise. It is almost an iron law that writers who tell other people how to write, from Lynne Truss to Simon Heffer, will as often as not get things technically wrong and break their own rules. It happens only very rarely here: I counted a couple of mis-identified Americanisms and two unfortunate dangling participles. “First seen in print in 1494, the playwright Ben Jonson was the first English writer of significance to use [the colon] consistently,” he says, implying that Jonson started writing 78 years before he was born.
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Many competent writers can do everything Brandreth recommends in the book, but would be hard pressed to enunciate the rules in a clear and entertaining fashion. This is where Brandreth excels: he is brilliant, for instance, on the difference between the semicolon and the colon. “Look at the colon and think of it as a pair of binoculars placed vertically on the table,” he advises. “It is there to help you look ahead.” He is sound, too, on dashes and apostrophes; on the difference between “may” and “might”; on how to form unusual plurals (“lord lieutenants”, “attorneys general”). I was especially pleased to see him insisting that you need a comma “to separate two independent clauses when they are linked by a coordinating conjunction” (like “and” or “but”), since one person who used to have the misfortune to edit my writing systematically removed all the ones I put in, which was a dagger to my tiny heart every time.
Brandreth insists that beginning a letter ‘Hi, Gyles’, with a comma between salutation and name, is ‘sinister’
The book is also very funny, and often outright silly. He insists that beginning a letter “Hi, Gyles”, with a comma between salutation and name, is “sinister”, and translates the phrase “Your call is important to us” quite directly as “Fuck off”. Naturally, he enjoys a bit of name-dropping (the Queen’s “comfort breaks” during official duties, he reveals, are scheduled with the marvellous euphemism “opportunity to tidy”), and entertaining anecdotage: “I was invited to host the British Funeral Directors’ Awards and found that the main prize of the night was for ‘thinking outside the box’.” Anyone who uses the word “whilst”, meanwhile, he insists is “subliterate”.
Some readers might not have predicted that a former Conservative MP would be so liberal and happy about modern changes in usage. He counsels his audience to read “the rappers” as well as Jane Austen, and enjoys the possibilities of expression represented by new terms for sexual orientation, or online initialisms such as FML and YMMV. Even with a usage he personally finds irritating, such as “bored of” (rather than “bored with”), he consults “my friends at the Oxford University Press”, who tell him it is now very common. Only occasionally does he put a fogeyish foot down, insisting that “Can I get?” (the coffee-shop version of “Can I have?”) is “wrong, wrong, WRONG”. It’s hard to see why, since no misunderstanding is possible, and I suspect that “Can I get?” might even be an adorably polite display of diffidence, an unwillingness to focus on my own greedy desire to have something.
It’s a shame, though, that Brandreth also feels he needs to pay lip service to the idea of “political correctness” as some kind of dark language-inhibiting force, perhaps because the market for such books skews to an older demographic. “You can have lots of fun with political correctness,” he says brightly, before hoping to demonstrate his point by making up a list of things that literally no one has ever said, eg: “Don’t call them ‘dead’ – say ‘they’re metabolically challenged’.” But it’s clear his heart is not really in it, because elsewhere he writes: “The Brandreth Rule is simple: at all times avoid racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic language – and, when in doubt, err on the side of sensitivity. In my book, bigoted language, and language that can be perceived as bigoted, is bad language [...] Good communication is about courtesy and kindness as well as clarity and getting your message across.”
Of course, such basic decency and consideration for others’ feelings is all “political correctness” really means. So he is, happily, on the side of the angels, in all his linguistic joie de vivre and amusing self-awareness. Indeed, if this Brandreth Rule were not more honoured in the breach than the observance, the world today would be a much better place.
• Have You Eaten Grandma?: Or, the Life-Saving Importance of Correct Punctuation, Grammar, and Good English is published by Michael Joseph. To order a copy for £8.59 (RRP £9.99) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
QUOTE:
As you might expect, the book, although quite technical at times, is very witty. It made me smile to hear how he did battle with his publishers over spelling and spacing of certain words and phrases.
Have You Eaten Grandma? by Gyles Brandreth #review @GylesB1 @michaeljbooks
Posted on 23/10/2018 by Joanne - Portobello Book Blog
Have You Eaten Grandma? is a book I just couldn’t resist as I am fascinated by language, definitions, etymology and evolution. Gyles Brandreth is well known for his eloquence and ability to speak on any subject at great length, so is the ideal person to have written this book about the correct use of English.
He is passionate about English and very keen that correct English is used but not such a traditionalist that he is not also excited about new words. He points out that “to speak good English, you don’t have to sound like the Queen. Good English isn’t about your accent: it’s about your ability to communicate – clearly, effectively and (when you want to) passionately.” Importantly, the author recognises that some people, for example those who suffer from dyslexia, do have difficulties with written language which can lead them rather unfairly to be labelled as ignorant or ill-educated.
The book is full of funny asides where I could almost hear and picture Gyles Brandreth with a wry smile on his face. As you might expect, the book, although quite technical at times, is very witty. It made me smile to hear how he did battle with his publishers over spelling and spacing of certain words and phrases.
There are many different areas covered in this book and the correct use of punctuation was the section which interested me most. I admit to being a bit of a grammar Nazi – especially where apostrophes are concerned. Every different punctuation mark is clearly explained, along with examples showing the difference they can make to the meaning of a sentence. I loved all the mnemonics for commonly misspelled words and the parts of the book explaining which word should be used when. I think I finally understand when to use past and when to use passed – something which always confused me. The differences between US and UK spellings, meanings and actual words used was fascinating and I had to laugh when the author said “Some people believe that it was while studying the niceties of British and American spelling that the Norwegian artist Edward Munch painted his masterpiece, ‘The Scream’.”
I do feel that this book would benefit from being read as a physical book rather than on an e-reader. I found that it could sometimes be a bit challenging to follow, especially where footnotes were concerned as, of course, my Kindle is not laid out quite like the page of a book. I should say though that my copy was a review copy and it is entirely possible that these issues are not a problem on the finished e-copy.
I am going to check this review very carefully for spelling or grammatical errors. As the author says, I don’t always get it right but I always try to! The most important message from this book is that clear communication is essential. “The more effectively you can communicate, the more successful you will be in every area of your life.” Have You Eaten Grandma? is informative and entertaining, and would make an ideal Christmas gift for anyone who is interested in language.
My thanks to the publishers Michael Joseph Books for my copy of this book from Netgalley. It is available now in hardback from all good book retailers or you can order a copy online here: Have You Eaten Grandma?
From the back of the book
Why, like, does everyone keep saying ‘like’?
Why do apostrophe’s keep turning up in the wrong place?
Why do we get confused when using foreign phrases – and vice versa?
Is it ‘may be’ or ‘maybe’? Should it be ‘past’ or ‘passed’? Is it ‘referenda’ or ‘referendums’?
FFS, what’s happening to our language!?
Our language is changing, literacy levels are dwindling and our grasp of grammar is at crisis point, so you wouldn’t be alone in thinking WTF! But do not despair, Have You Eaten Grandma? is here: Gyles Brandreth’s definitive (and hilarious) guide to punctuation, spelling, and good English for the twenty-first century.
Without hesitation or repetition (and just a touch of deviation) Gyles, the Just A Minute regular and self-confessed grammar guru, skewers the linguistic horrors of our time, tells us where we’ve been going wrong (and why), and reveals his tips and tricks to ensure that, in future, we make fewer (rather than ‘less’) mistakes. End of.
(Is ‘End of’ alright? Is ‘alright’ all right? You’ll find out right here . . . )
And why not check out the Have You Eaten Grandma? podcast, starring Gyles and a host of other grammar and linguisitic lovers and experts
About the author
Gyles Brandreth is an English theatre producer, actor, politician, journalist, author and TV presenter. Born in Germany, he moved to London at the age of three and, after his education at New College, Oxford, he began his career in television.
He went from presenting Puzzle Party in the 1970s, to appearing in Countdown‘s Dictionary Corner for over 300 episodes. His career has since encompassed becoming an MP and appearing regularly on TV and radio, but writing is his true passion.
His past books include; Word Play, Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations and Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries.