The Oxford Book of Parodies

This is great bedtime reading. A wonderful collection into which to dip, relish and re-read. John Gross takes a wide view of parody and that is all to the good. Inevitably the examples he uses are variable in quality, some strained, even laboured, but many wonderfully sharp. Some writers lend themselves to parody and even on occasion seem to parody themselves. Wordsworth, unquestionably in my view one of our greatest poets, can slip from the sublime to near self-ridicule. Not that parody is necessarily about ridicule at all. Imitation is.....etc.My only criticism of this volume, or perhaps "regret" is a more appropriate word, is that my favourite by far remains Wendy Cope, whose lucid intelligence and sparkling wit shines out beyond all her rivals. The brilliant "Waste Land" limericks and the Strugnell poems are superb, very well-thumbed and never far from hand. A final caveat: there seem to me some strange omissions such as Henry Reed's "Chard Whitlow" and I'm surprised that more use is not made of the London Underground parodies, some of which are hilarious.

The editor in his introduction suggests a spectrum comprising pastiche, parody and burlesque. There are examples of all three styles in this book. It contains a good selection of the best modern parodists - Beerbohm, Craig Brown, Wendy Cope, Malcolm Bradbury, Mark Crick and Alan Bennett. Inevitably, the reader will find some personal favourites missing. My choices would be Sebastian Faulks' Coleridge parody "In Shepherd's Bush did Mister Khan/ A new conservatory decree..." and Roge Woddis' rewrite of Mrs Hemans - "The garden gnomes of England/ How beautiful they stand..." However,I'm glad to see included the naughty version of Cole Porter's "You're the Top" and an extract from Osbert Lancaster's "Draynefleet Revealed".

This is sheer delight, real chortle aloud stuff. Some of them were familiar, but the majority weren't, and many were a glorious revelation. And the annotations are excellent. Ideal for dipping into at bedtime.

For those you like their literature upended, this is a joy. Some of the pastiches are brilliant and better than the original!

Great stuff.