Sebastian Payne

Hugo Rifkind’s My Week reminds me why it’s worth getting up on Saturdays

From the two Eds to the Darlings to the unfunny al-Fayed, this compilation of Rifkind's diary columns is an enticing bible of satire

issue 07 December 2013

‘Nothing’s funny any more’ has become the daily mantra of this magazine’s cartoon editor, Michael Heath. Thanks to Leveson, political correctness, taste and common decency, lampooning public figures in particular has become more difficult than ever.

Hugo Rifkind still has the right idea. From the despair of trying to conjure up a column for the Times’s Saturday edition, he came up with ‘My Week’, and these diaries, in which he takes aim at someone — usually in politics — who has dominated the news, are now the first thing many people turn to. This compilation brings together his best sketches in an enticing bible of satire.

The merriment gained from the material is dependent on whom Rifkind has to work with.

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