If you are of a certain age, you might well remember the
head-to-head comedy conversations between Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith or the
two Ronnies. They’d talk earnestly about something, dive off in tangents,
bewilder each other and provide the watcher with a huge amount of entertainment
in the process.
There’s something about the central characters in The Burglar Diaries (Bez and Ollie) that
reminded me of those comedy encounters. Maybe it’s the quality of the writing
and the brilliance of the humour that I felt they had in common.
Bez and Ollie are a team. We get to follow them through a
series of crimes that are never short of interesting events in themselves. It’s
a collection of musings and action that come together as a well-knitted
collection of short stories yet also have something of the driving narrative of
a novel. There a thoughts on the criminal code, the planning of a burglary,
fencing stolen goods, holding down relationships when you’re a crook, famous
rip-offs, popular culture and shades of philosophy.
This was a genuine laugh-out-loud book for me and those
laughs were spread all the way through the work.
There’s great observational
and situational humour here and I’d urge you to try it for yourself.
Smashing stuff.
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