Book Notes: It's Not a Runner Bean by Mark Steel

Well this book proved to be a bit of a dissapointment really. His book on the French Revolution is astute, funny, and unashamedly biased historical satire; his "reasons to be cheerful" - in which he satirises his own revolutionary socialism in the Thatcher era, is even better. So, I got this one with high expectations - but was let down. It's not that it is all bad, there are some very good one liners, which raise a laugh - there just aren't many of them. Steel's stock-in-trade gag is the ludicrous comparison - and even these were in short supply. The social comment and political fervour of the other books seemed to be a bit lacking too. It's not that I didn't enjoy this, just that it falls way short of his other stuff.

Perhaps it is just that this is a collection of his articles chucked into a book that is its failing, and that the other books work so much better because they were actually supposed to be, books! Nevertheless, if anyone had enjoyed "The Mark Steel Lectures" on Radio4, and wanted more of the same; they'd be better off with "Reasons..." or "Vive la Revolution".