Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar

  What I brought to comedy was an authentic working-class voice plus a threat of genuine violence – nobody in Monty Python looked like a hard case who’d kick your head in

  In 1971, comedians on the working men's club circuit imagined that they would be free to continue telling their tired, racist, misogynistic gags forever. But their nemesis, a nineteen-year-old Marxist art student, was slowly coming to meet them…

  Thatcher Stole My Trousers chronicles a time when comedy and politics united in electrifying ways. Recounting the founding of the Comedy Store, the Comic Strip and the Young Ones, and Alexei’s friendships with the comedians who – like him – would soon become household names, this is a unique and beguiling blend of social history and memoir. Fascinating, funny, angry and entertaining, it is a story of class and comedy, politics and love, fast cars and why it’s difficult to foul a dwarf in a game of football.

  ‘Few standups have come close to capturing a fraction of this creative energy in a book … Alexei Sayle is an exception’ Guardian

  ‘Terrific … He changed my life ****’ Mail on Sunday

  ‘Thatcher Stole My Trousers deals with the birth of stand-up as we understand it in the UK … I really, really enjoyed this, I thought it was brilliant ... Laugh-out-loud’ Stewart Lee

  Click here to order

  First published in Great Britain 2017

  This electronic edition published in 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  © Alexei Sayle, 2017

  Illustrations © Andrew Joyce, 2017

  The BBC word mark and BBC Radio 4 logo are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and used under licence. BBC Logo © BBC 2005. Radio 4 Logo © BBC 2011

  Alexei Sayle has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as author of this work.

  Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them.

  This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

  Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  50 Bedford Square

  London

  WC1B 3DP

  www.bloomsbury.com

  Bloomsbury is a trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi and Sydney

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  eISBN 978 1 4088 9584 9

  To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com. Here you will find extracts, author interviews, details of forthcoming events and the option to sign up for our newsletters.