John Barry Humphries was een Australische komiek, satiricus en kunstenaar, vooral bekend om zijn alter ego's op het podium en op televisie, Dame Edna Everage en Sir Les Patterson. Zijn werk wordt gekenmerkt door scherpe satire en dadaïstische humor, waarmee hij sociale en culturele fenomenen becommentarieerde. Naast schrijven en acteren hield hij zich ook bezig met schilderen en theater, wat zijn veelzijdigheid aantoonde.
Barry Humphries's first novel. Mrs Petty is a famous housewife with a successful TV show. She is also Derek Pettyfer - fiftyish, cultured, set in his ways. His arrival at any party, however sophisticated, always provokes a discreet little frisson amongst the guests. But Derek is also lonely.
Barry Humphries has deliberately furnished his biographers with half-truths and fiction, but now he has written his own account of his life. He tells of his schooldays, his Australian adolescence, his indiscretions, his renunciations and his appetites.
Doran, Amanda-Jane, Punchlines - 150 years of humorous writing in Punch. London, HarperCollins, 1991. 26cm. XII, 371 pages. Original hardcover with dustjacket in protective mylar. Excellent, close to new condition with only minor signs of external wear. Includes work by authors / comedians such as: John Bentjemen / Mary Dunn / Graham Greene / Melvyn bragg / Stevie Smith / William Boyd / Robert Graves / etc.