The Utterly Ultimate My Word

I used to listen to the radio show "My Word!" when I was a teenager living in Hong Kong in the early seventies. The most popular and most talked about part of the show was when Frank Muir and Dennis Norden were asked to make up stories which culminated in an expression that was something close to a well known phrase or proverb. I remember marvelling at the way that these two extremely clever, and funny, gentlemen managed to derive the expression that they revealed at the end of their stories. I tried to work it out before they arrived at their destination, which was fun, and very occasionally I felt the ecstasy of being right! Having the privilege of being able to revisit these most enjoyable puzzles by being able to read through a book consisting 147 of them, is just too wonderful to describe. I have read through the book from front to back two or three times. However, it sits on my bookshelves and is frequently brought down so that I may just randomly enjoy a few of these stories at my leisure. This is a book that you should obtain both for your personal pleasure and to leave lying around your house so that your friends and family can open it at any page and share your enjoyment.

This is the final and complete collection of the "My Word" stories. I believe there are five My Word books and at least one other compilation. This is the one you want to get if you can find it. The My Word stories are an entirely new and unique form of humorous prose. At the end of every My Word program, Muir and Norden were each assigned a famous line or title. They then told a story that ended with a pun based on the line. Sometimes the stories went into bizarre fantasies designed to set-up the pun. Other times the story was loose collection of elaborate puns. If you enjoy puns and British humor in general, you will love this book. It has some of the funniest ideas I have ever read. It's often reminiscent of the best of Wodehouse. The personae Muir and Norden develop for themselves over the years are classic. They will be familiar to you in a few pages. I can't recommend this book too highly.