"Spitting Image established a series of enduring and negative images that the Tory party still cannot shake off"
Is sarcasm really the lowest form of wit?
Saying one thing while apparently saying the opposite – and challenging the listener/reader to translate is a lot harder than it sounds. Anyway, it usually makes me laugh!
When did satire first emerge and what was its purpose?
Greek writers like Aristophanes used theatre to instruct their audiences on contemporary social and moral issues. But what we call satire really takes off with Roman poets like Horace and Juvenal. Broadly speaking, we can say that Juvenal encourages the reader to join him in laughing at somebody or something else; Horace asks the reader to laugh at themselves.
Can satire bring about meaningful change in society? If so, can you give us an example...
Not many single works of art can claim to have brought about measureable and meaningful change in society. I think that the value of satire can best be measured in its long-term effects. Spitting Image didn’t bring down the Thatcher or Major governments, but they did establish for a generation a series of enduring and negative images that the Tory party still cannot shake off.
Who are your favourite satirists?
Swift, Bulgakov, Brecht, Heller, Pelyevin, Rowson, Sterne, Gogol, Byron...
Lord Byron used satire in his poetry and he's the topic of your latest book A Modern Don Juan. Tell us about it....
A Modern Don Juan is an attempt to bring Byron’s satirical epic masterpiece Don Juan into the twenty-first century. Where Byron ridiculed the hypocrisy of early nineteenth-century Europe, the fifteen poets who have contributed to A Modern Don Juan pass comment on the customs, common-sense and cant of the contemporary world, including Cameron’s Britain, Berlusconi’s Italy, the Greek Crisis and Reality TV. According to the Guardian, the book is ‘laugh-out-loud funny’...
What will you be doing in your workshop? Do you need to be a writer to attend?
Talking and thinking about the limits and possibilities of satirical writing – what it is/isn’t, does/doesn’t, should/shouldn’t, can/can’t do. And trying our hands at writing some satire of our own.
Andy Croft is holding a satire workshop at the Nottingham Writers' Studio on Saturday 14 February, with profits donated to English Pen.
Andy will also be hosting a talk at the Five Leaves bookshop on Saturday 14 February from 7pm - 8.30pm
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