John Barry Humphries è stato un comico, satirico e artista australiano, noto soprattutto per i suoi alter ego teatrali e televisivi, Dame Edna Everage e Sir Les Patterson. La sua opera è caratterizzata da un'acuta satira e da un umorismo dadaista, attraverso i quali commentava fenomeni sociali e culturali. Oltre a scrivere e recitare, si è dedicato anche alla pittura e al teatro, dimostrando la sua versatilità.
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.