Women Writing Funny – a top ten list

As some of you may know, I live with a comedian. (No, seriously.) Together we’ve co-written a comedy drama for BBC Radio 4, a sitcom commissioned by the BBC, and a rom-com filmscript currently optioned by a film company. And yes, we are still happily married.

Thinking that there might be other women out there who’d like to flex their writing funny muscles, I offered a comedy writing workshop as part of the Glasgow Comedy Festival. I was amazed at how popular it turned out to be, with 17 women turning up at our new library premises in Landressy Street, Bridgeton.

These days most of us are used to finding our comedy entertainment through sitcoms or films, but there has always been a great range of comedy writing in book form, from novels and short stories to spoof memoirs and autobiographies.

So that got me to thinking about drawing up a Top Ten List of Comic Reads Written by Women. Some I’ve chosen are gloriously silly, like Lady Addle Remembers, written by Mary Dunn in the 1930s.

Others are based on real life, like the semi-autobiographical Postcards From The Edge by Carrie Fisher, Star Wars star and daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds. And Heartburn by Nora Ephron, the woman who wrote the screenplay for When Harry Met Sally.

In the introduction to Heartburn, Nora writes,

‘It’s been nearly twenty-five years since my second marriage ended, and twenty two years since I finsihed writing the book you’re about to read, which is often referred to as a thinly disguised novel. I have no real quarrel with this description, even though I’ve noticed, over the years, that the words ‘thinly disguised’ are applied mostly to books written by women.

Let’s face it, Philip Roth and John Updike picked away at the carcasses of their early marriages in book after book, but to the best of my knowledge they were never hit with the thinly-disguised thing.’

Some are complete fictional escapism with a more gentle humour, like the wonderful I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith, who also wrote The Hundred and One Dalmatians.

One of my personal favourites is Stella Gibbon’s Cold Comfort Farm. If you haven’t read this, I thoroughly recommend it. (Though some say it was written by Bramwell Bronte, and not by a woman at all.)

Anyway, here’s my top ten list, arranged chronologically:

1. Emma by Jane Austen 1815

2. The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford 1919

3. Lady Addle Remembers by Mary Dunn 1930s

4. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons 1932

5. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith 1949

6. Angel by Elizabeth Taylor 1957

7. The Serial by Cyra McFadden 1977

8. Heartburn  by Nora Ephron 1983

9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg 1987

10. Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher 1987

Of course, there are many others I could have included, such as the 1922 Just William stories by Richmal Compton, who was indeed a woman. Or Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole (1982). I’ve left these out, partly because the protagonists are male, partly because these books are so well known already.

I’ve also just come across The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, written in 1958. As I’ve not had a chance to read it yet, I’ve not put it on my list, but I was fascinated to learn that the success of her novel led to the breakdown of her marriage with US theatre critic, Kenneth Tynan. ‘You weren’t a writer when I married you,’ he’s reported to have raged at her. ‘You were an actress.’

Elaine also received the following fan letter:

Dear Mrs Tynan, I don’t make the habit of writing to married women, especially if the husband is a dramatic critic, but I had to tell someone (and it might as well be you since you’re the author) how much I enjoyed The Dud Avocado. It made me laugh, scream and guffaw (which incidentally is a great name for a law firm). If this was actually your life, I don’t know how on earth you got through it. Sincerely, Groucho Marx

So I guess that once I’ve read it, it might well get onto my list.

This is just my personal top ten funny books by women, and it’s completely by chance that I’ve not chosen anything in the 21st century.

Perhaps you can think of some comic literary gems I should have included? I’d love to hear what they are.

Magi