Happiness and Tears

A definitive life one of the best-loved and most enduring figures of British comedy, the eccentric genius and national treasure Ken Dodd, whose seven-decade career straddled the end of the era of variety and the golden age of television comedy.

'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 .

“PRAISE FOR THE TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF LES DAWSON : 'Les Dawson was always around and always hilarious ... All praise to Louis Barfe ... He makes us realise what we lost when Les Dawson died' Observer. 'Louis Barfe succeeds in digging beneath the television personality to uncover Dawson's hidden layers' Time Out. 'Lugubrious, complex and always funny, Les Dawson gets the biography he deserves' Scotsman. '[A] conscientious, heartfelt book ... In today's hard times, we could do with another comic like Dawson' New Statesman. 'Definitive' Roger Lewis, Daily Mail.”

'Louis Barfe charts the life and long career of one of our favourite and much missed comics' This England. 'Louis Barfe brings, in his excellent life of Ken Dodd, an experienced and authoritative hand, taking a firm step towards a comprehensive portrait ... The triumphs of his first choice profession are related here in masterly fashion by Louis Barfe' The Call Boy. 'Louis Barfe's industriously thorough, entertaining biography [...] written with admiration verging on hagiography, portrays the comic genius who was the last performer to uphold this country's tradition of vaudeville in music hall, on radio and television' Spectator. 'Fascinatingly odd' Daily Express. '[Barfe] makes a convincing case for Dodd as the last of the great variety acts, a talent better suited to the stage than the small screen' The Lady. 'As much a tribute as a biography ... The result is sure to delight Dodd's many admirers' Times Literary Supplement. 'Barfe's biography of Ken Dodd is an absolute joy, celebrating [a] comic genius' Choice. 'Barfe takes us through Dodd's fascinating life and career with great clarity, some impressive sleuthing and obvious affection' Reader's Digest.

Louis Barfe is expert on all aspects of the entertainment industry. He is the author of Where Have All The Good Times Gone? The Rise and Fall of the Record Industry (2004), Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light Entertainment (2008) and The Trials and Triumphs of Les Dawson (2012).

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