Happiness and Tears

''I suffer from acute kleptomania. But when it gets bad, I take something for it.'' Ken Dodd was a legend of British comedy. He launched his career in 1954, adopted his trademark ''tickling stick'' two years later and went on to enjoy a sixty-year career as the nation''s jester. Dodd''s act was frenzied and zany, exploiting his saucer-eyed, buck-toothed appearance and deploying a repertoire of one-liners, whimsical and verbal inventions and liberal doses of saucy – but never dirty – jokes. Louis Barfe charts Dodd''s life and extraordinarily long career, revealing him to be the last of the great variety acts – and a comic phenomenon who delighted his audiences across seven decades. Reviews for Happiness and Tears: ''The definitive account'' The Times. ''An industriously thorough, entertaining biography'' The Spectator. ''Sure to delight Dodd''s many admirers'' TLS. ''Fascinatingly odd'' Daily Express. ''An absolute joy'' Choice.