Surprising literary ventures | 14 October 2006

A Time Before Genesis (1986)
by Les Dawson

The rare book shown above (try getting hold of a copy) is Les Dawson’s only serious work of fiction. It provides a disturbing insight into the mind of the late comedian. Its thesis is that the earth has, for millennia, been controlled by alien forces who have had a hand in everything from the Maya to the Miners’ Strike; in its magisterial sweep the book takes in the Spanish Inquisition, the rise of Hitler, the Kennedy assassination, Glastonbury, the Second Coming, cigarettes stubbed out on the eyeballs (twice), various scenes of sexual mutilation, the projected collapse of the EEC in 1989 and the Sino-Russian war of 1992. The following excerpt gives an idea of the inflated tone, which despite its resemblance to bits of Dawson’s stage act is, I must repeat, not meant to be funny: ‘Before the Beginning, there was an emptiness, an abyss of space, an infinite void where only the darkness seemed tangible.