The Diary of a Nobody

I fail to see – because I do not happen to be a “Somebody” – why my diary should not be interesting

Mr Pooter is a man of modest ambitions, content with his ordinary life. Yet he always seems to be troubled by disagreeable tradesmen, impertinent young office clerks and wayward friends, not to mention his devil-may-care son Lupin with his unsuitable choice of bride. Try as he might, he cannot avoid life’s embarrassing mishaps. In the bumbling, absurd, yet ultimately endearing figure of Pooter, the Grossmiths created an immortal comic character and a superb satire on the snobberies of middle-class suburbia – one which also sends up late Victorian crazes for spiritualism and bicycling, as well as the fashion for publishing diaries by anybody and everybody.

This edition contains the original illustrations by Weedon Grossmith and an introduction by Ed Glinert discussing the novel’s serialization in Punch, the growth of the suburbs and the figure of Mr Pooter.

The jewel at the heart of English comic literature – WILLIAM TREVOR

The funniest book in the world – EVELYN WAUGH