Except You're a Bird

Except You're a Bird (whose title comes from a speech by the Eighteen Century Irish politician, Boyle Roche, mis-identified in the book as Boyd Roche, who may have been a model for Mrs Malaprop) was to be the last Brandon family book for over a decade, although Tinniswood continued writing the Brandon's for TV until 1979. It displays all the characteristics that, in a short space of time, had made him such a highly-valued comic novellist, and it remains gloriously funny now, forty years later. But, as we'll begin to see, it and I Didn't Know You Cared represent something of a peak for Tinniswood's work. It's continually funny, hitting little peaks of laughter over and again, and its anchored in a concrete reality based on Tinniswood's own experience of northern life, and how people talked and thought. For his next novel, Tinniswood would break away from that setting, seeking to broaden his horizons. It worked well, given that he maintained that down to earth tone, and there were still great things to come. But the early part of his career was to end here, and there is much debate to be had about where his talent would now lead him. Source: Martin Crookall


Genre: General Fiction