Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook

Peter Cook · William Cook

Aug 2013 · Random House

About this ebook

For his many friends and fans, Peter Cook was quite simply the funniest man they'd ever encountered. And nearly eight years since his death, his status as one of Britain's greatest comedians shows no sign of shrinking. Despite his reputation for idleness, Peter Cook was a great comedy writer, who created countless outrageous sketches and articles and was famed for his prolific role in the satire boom of the 1960s. The very best, the most famous and some of the most unusual of his comic masterpieces are collected here. Some of these pieces have never been published before, others are out of print, a few only survive in print, and many have only ever been seen or heard - never read. This collection ranges from Cook's first writing, at school and university, via Beyond The Fringe, with Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller, his dualogues with Moore as Pete & Dud and Derek & Clive, and their brilliant TV series, Not Only But Also, to transcripts of his late, great TV appearances, and a selection of his journalism for the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard and Private Eye.

Ratings and reviews

The funniest man who ever lived. Every line is suffused with comic genius.

About the author

Peter Cook (Author)
William Cook is the author of Ha Bloody Ha - Comedians Talking (Fourth Estate) and The Comedy Store - The Club That Changed British Comedy (Little, Brown). He has worked for the BBC and written for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday and the New Statesman.

William Cook (Author)
William Cook’s most recent book is One Leg Too Few - The Adventures of Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, published by Preface.

He is also the author of Ha Bloody Ha (Fourth Estate), The Comedy Store (Little, Brown), Morecambe & Wise Untold (HarperCollins) and 25 Years of Viz (Macmillan).

He edited Kiss Me, Chudleigh - The World According to Auberon Waugh (Hodder), Eric Morecambe Unseen (HarperCollins), and Tragically, I Was An Only Twin and Goodbye Again, two biographical anthologies of the work of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, both published by Century.

He has worked for the BBC and has written for the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Mail on Sunday. He currently contributes to the Independent, the Spectator and Conde Nast Traveller. He has won several awards for his travel writing, including the Johann Strauss Gold Medal for his writing about Vienna.