The Complete Henry Root Letters

Product Information

His heroes were few, but those who were, to Root's mind, "sound" - principally Mrs Thatcher, the Dowager Lady Birdwood and James Anderton, "God's Cop", the self-appointed guardian of Greater Manchester's morals. Supposedly a wet fish merchant from Fulham, he is an avatar for a lot of the to-the-right-of-Attila-the-Hun, Thatcher-supporting, mildly racist, entitled, liberal-baiting mansplaining that was de rigeur and absolutely unchallenged in the Spectator/Private Eye yachts and casinos circles that Donaldson frequented.

His experiences there formed the basis of his first novel, Both the Ladies and the Gentlemen (1975). Published in 1980, what would Henry Root of the wet fish emporium make of the A to Z listers of today.a b c "William Donaldson – Womanising satirist and novelist who squandered several fortunes on wild living". His letters, full of alleged scandals and hanky panky, are taken perfectly seriously by their recipients whose responses are as funny as Root's own rantings. In short, he was the British version of Sarah Palin – but people apparently took him seriously (with the exception of Cambridge). He established himself as a central player in the British satire boom of the early 1960s, as co-producer, with Donald Albery, of Beyond the Fringe (1960), and of dramatisations of J. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

It consists of real correspondence between an apparently wealthy and eccentric retired fish-merchant, and many public figures to whom he wrote, requesting support for bizarre right-wing proposals. Donaldson lived at 139 Elm Park Mansions on Park Walk, Chelsea, London SW10, from which address all the Root letters were sent. Henry Root, who made a fortune in wet fish, spent ten years in correspondence with powerful and famous people across Britain. com, who sent a letter to all US senators, posing as a child and asking them for their favourite joke.This single volume brings together "The Henry Root Letters" and "The Further Letters of Henry Root". When he hits a target full on, or when the target responds with good grace or a sense of humour, it's hilarious, however. This book is a compendium of actual letters which the author wrote to all kinds of people of note - all from his persona of some kind of hard core petite bourgeoise British citizen. Back in 1979, people with too much time on their hands could send actual letters to leading politicians, judges and other luminaries of light entertainment, and expect a reply.

Root wrote the BBC – I think Monty Python had his number, the Queen, Prince Charles, various publishing houses. The sender of these letters – a cantankerous crusader against pornography and modernity, and for hanging and Mrs. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Root first came to my attention more years ago than I care to admit when I was in Denmark and saw the televised version of Root into Europe.He was educated at Winchester College (where he first met Julian Mitchell) and Magdalene College, Cambridge. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Esther Rantzen doesn't come out quite so well - there's a disagreement about whether the BBC should pay Root for some unusable script material, and Rantzen sends the same response to two different letters - the first from Root praising the show, the second, again thanking him and saying how much they appreciate viewer contributions is in response to his missive which says simply, "Dear Esther, You're a fat idiot and your show's a disgrace. Donaldson's third marriage, in 1986, was to Cherry Hatrick, who survived him; they separated six months after their marriage. Donaldson's ghastly creation wrote outrageous, threatening, scurrilous and outlandish letters to public figures, praising, insulting or attempting to bribe them.