The satire boom of the 1960's explained, to put it briefly. Somewhere between a history and a celebration of all that very British form of comedy - taking the mickey out of those in power when they behave like idiots.

Covering everyone from Alan Bennett to Peter Cook, from That Was The Week That Was to Private Eye, this book gives a full and definite account of exactly what happened to generate this wave of satire in the early 1960's, what it did, where it went and who followed after it.

Humphrey Carpenter does an extremely good job of sorting out the order of things, explaining who the original four members of Beyond the Fringe (this being the show that kicked the whole thing off) actually were. He gives a detailed example of their background, education, personality...and then launches into remembering some of their finest jokes.

This book, as it moves steadily through the years, introducing each character in turn, is not just a dry history that informs you of dull statistics. It's a loving reminder that not so long ago, doing an impersonation of the Prime Minister on TV was extremely daring, that a short skit on religion could get you discussed in the House of Lords and that Mrs Thatcher wasn't necessarily the most disliked Prime Minister we've ever had.

Mr Carpenter also brings the book up to date (or at least up to 2000), and picks up on the new giants of this comedy art form, mentioning Ian Hislop, Have I Got News For You and of course Rory Bremner.

This is a great book for those people that wondered - exactly where did Alan Bennett come from? when did Pete and Dud become such a big hit? and what exactly was That Was The Week That Was about?