Through It All I’ve Always Laughed, by Count Arthur Strong – review

Fans of Count Arthur Strong (and yes I know he’s so Marmite you could spread him on a cheese sandwich) love the failed performer because he does what we all dream of: ranting at others to cover our own mistakes. At the same time he reminds us what a fool this makes one look, so as well as being an entertainer he’s a cautionary tale.

The warning is now available in book form, Through It All I’ve Always Laughed. If you’re unfamiliar with the Count’s work you should probably sample him on radio or television first. Converts, however, will relish the revelations about what made Strong the man, the legend, the sole proprietor of the Doncaster Academy of Performance he is.

We see him ‘growing fast, like forced rhubarb does’ under the influence of a father who ‘laughed like an infectious hyena’. His first drug trip results in him trying to bite Rodney Bewes, while it’s 1974 before he tastes an olive (‘and when I did I wished I hadn’t’).