REVIEWS

BELOW CRITICAL RADAR (2000)

This one was originally brought to my attention by my mate Chris Pounds who used to own Northampton's very alternative bookshop BLACKCURRENT BOOKS.

ATTITUDE (November 1999)

Any magazine that contains the sentence "colon spasticatingly funny" has to be miles better than the actual book it's describing.

ARCADE (November 1999)

This is my favourite review of the Bloomsbury hardback edition of the Stare-out as the writer absolutely nails the truth of the matter with his/her penultimate sentence. 

SELECT (October 1999)

Ha Ha! Look! Select reviewer Ian Harison spelt Alessandro Kampagnola's name wrong! 

THE BIG ISSUE (October 1999)

Gimme those Ground Force CDs!!! 

FRONT (October 1999)

Front was a rather low end lad mag but the editor really liked the stare-out so I can do tacky, no problem whatsoever. The "wicked pull-out poster" was indeed wicked, with this on one side...

...and "Amber" on the other. 

BIZARRE (October 1999)

THE DAILY EXPRESS (30 October 1999)

This review in The Express newspaper gave me much pleasure as me and my brother Robert were both very keen chess players as kids and we used to watch William Hartston's Saturday morning BBC TV show "Play Chess"

TIME OUT (20 October 1999)

One wonders why the journalist in question at Time Out chose this panel in particular to go with this plug? There are loads more much better than this one as I'm sure you'll agree if you own the book yourself.

THE SUNDAY MIRROR (15 October 1999)

I'm actually a slow and not particularly proficient person. 

THE BOOKSELLER (20 August 1999)

This small review in The Bookseller was shoved under my nose by my then excellent editor at Bloomsbury. Mr Mike Jones who was jolly pleased about it but I was less moved as I'd never heard of the magazine before, but I did enjoy the piss taking at the end. Indeed, I still do.   

MELODY MAKER (9 January 1999)

This interview was a right laugh as the two guys from Melody Maker were really sound and we all got a bit pissed in the pub, at least, I did anyway. I recall rather proudly showing this article to Graham Linehan who let slip in a rare moment of social blunder in my presence, "They've gave you more space than they gave me and Arthur!" Ha ha!

NORTHAMPTON CHRONICLE AND ECHO (2 December 1998)

THE DAILY MIRROR (10 November 1998)

"wonderful"

"not very funny"

Okay, so these two aren't my reviews but they are presented here as on 10 November 1998, The Daily Mirror clearly couldn't make up its mind. 

THE OBSERVER (16 June 1996)

Shortly after self publishing THE WORLD STARE-OUT CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL I happened to see THE OBSERVER reviewed an underground small press music magazine about the rave scene and I wondered if they might review my small press offering too. I noted down the reviewer's name and sent her a copy of my newly minted comedy masterpiece and, needless to say, I was completely caught off guard when Caroline Harris gave it this frankly fantastic review the following week. The thing I really like about this review, beside it being my first national notice, was that Caroline Harris clearly got it and managed to perfectly summarise the contents of the stare-out comic pack in very few words.