The genius of Flanders and Swann

War has had its apologians ever since history began,
From the times of the Greeks and Trojans when they sang of Arms and the Man,
(But if you ask me to name the best, sir, I’ll tell you the one I mean,
Head and shoulders above the rest, sir, was the War of 14-18)

If you’ve never heard Michael Flanders’s rollickingly good version of Georges Brassens ‘La Guerre de 14-18’ – an ironic take-down of the industrial-scale slaughter of the first world war, then you’re missing a treat. I first heard Flanders and Swann in my schooldays: I loved ‘The Gnu’, ‘The Hippopotamus Song (Mud, mud glorious mud)’ and ‘Misalliance (The Honeysuckle and the Bindweed)’.

But it was only since buying the three-disc ‘Complete Flanders and Swann’ (containing ‘At the drop of a Hat’, ‘At the drop of Another Hat’ and ‘The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann’) at an Oxfam shop shortly before Christmas that I’ve appreciated the full extent of their genius.