Person

Alan Coren

0 members

What's driving coverage of Alan Coren right now?

Comments

Ask Genius by OpenServe:

Free account · your comment posts right after signup

Alan Coren

0 members

What's driving coverage of Alan Coren right now?

Comments

Ask Genius by OpenServe:

Free account · your comment posts right after signup

Alan Coren across IJR

Studio characters

Alan CorenAsk the humorist everything the interviews skip.

Ask Genius by OpenServe about Alan Coren Create in Studio Build a game Watch videos

Overview

Alan Coren (27 June 1938 – 18 October 2007) was an English humourist, writer and satirist who was a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff. Coren was also a journalist, and for almost a decade was the editor of Punch magazine. Early life and education Alan Coren was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in East Barnet, Hertfordshire, in 1938, the son of builder and plumber Samuel Coren and his wife Martha, a hairdresser. In the introduction to Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks: The Essential Alan Coren, Giles and Victoria Coren conclude that Samuel Coren was "an odd job man really" and had also apparently been a debt collector. Coren was educated at Osidge Primary School and East Barnet Grammar School. Having gained a scholarship, he studied English at Wadham College, Oxford. He graduated from the University of Oxford with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1960: as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree. Having won a Harkness Fellowship, he then studied for a doctorate in modern American literature at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley. He did not complete his PhD. Life and career Coren considered an academic career but instead decided to become a writer and journalist. In his later life he distanced himself from his Jewish heritage, being 'slightly embarrassed' and stating in an interview with The Independent, 'I haven't been Jewish for years!'.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“In the days when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, I know one boy who won't be sweating. I intend to raise my coffin-lid briskly, throw a few things into an overnight bag, and, whistling something appropriate, prepare to meet my Maker.”
— "Bye Bye Blackbird, Hello Mortal Sin", The Dog It Was that Died (1965)
“A long, soft sigh, one of those very Italian sighs that express so much, that say "Ah, signor, if only this world were an ideal world, what would I not give to be able to do as you ask, we should sit together in the Tuscan sunshine, you and I, just two men together, and we should drink a bottle of the good red wine, and we should sing, ah, how we should sing."”
— "Let Us Now Phone Famous Men".
“Since Switzerland has nothing else to identify it…and since both its national products, snow and chocolate, melt, the cuckoo clock was invented solely in order to give tourists something solid to remember it by.”
— "And Though They Do Their Best To Bring…".
“Having lost the last war, they are currently enjoying a Wirtschaftswunder, which can be briefly translated as "The best way to own a Mercedes is to build one."”
— "All You Need To Know About Europe", Germany.
“Strictly speaking, the land does not exist; it is merely dehydrated sea.”
— "All You Need To Know About Europe", Netherlands.
“I rang room service, and asked for a bottle of Perrier, because while I was asleep someone had come in and carpeted my throat.”
— "The Night We Went To Epernay By Way Of Tours-sur-Marne".

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Alan Coren (27 June 1938 – 18 October 2007) was an English humourist, writer and satirist who was a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff. Coren was also a journalist, and for almost a decade was the editor of Punch magazine.

Overview

Alan Coren (27 June 1938 – 18 October 2007) was an English humourist, writer and satirist who was a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff. Coren was also a journalist, and for almost a decade was the editor of Punch magazine. Early life and education Alan Coren was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in East Barnet, Hertfordshire, in 1938, the son of builder and plumber Samuel Coren and his wife Martha, a hairdresser. In the introduction to Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks: The Essential Alan Coren, Giles and Victoria Coren conclude that Samuel Coren was "an odd job man really" and had also apparently been a debt collector. Coren was educated at Osidge Primary School and East Barnet Grammar School. Having gained a scholarship, he studied English at Wadham College, Oxford. He graduated from the University of Oxford with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1960: as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree. Having won a Harkness Fellowship, he then studied for a doctorate in modern American literature at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley. He did not complete his PhD. Life and career Coren considered an academic career but instead decided to become a writer and journalist. In his later life he distanced himself from his Jewish heritage, being 'slightly embarrassed' and stating in an interview with The Independent, 'I haven't been Jewish for years!'.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“In the days when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, I know one boy who won't be sweating. I intend to raise my coffin-lid briskly, throw a few things into an overnight bag, and, whistling something appropriate, prepare to meet my Maker.”
— "Bye Bye Blackbird, Hello Mortal Sin", The Dog It Was that Died (1965)
“A long, soft sigh, one of those very Italian sighs that express so much, that say "Ah, signor, if only this world were an ideal world, what would I not give to be able to do as you ask, we should sit together in the Tuscan sunshine, you and I, just two men together, and we should drink a bottle of the good red wine, and we should sing, ah, how we should sing."”
— "Let Us Now Phone Famous Men".
“Since Switzerland has nothing else to identify it…and since both its national products, snow and chocolate, melt, the cuckoo clock was invented solely in order to give tourists something solid to remember it by.”
— "And Though They Do Their Best To Bring…".
“Having lost the last war, they are currently enjoying a Wirtschaftswunder, which can be briefly translated as "The best way to own a Mercedes is to build one."”
— "All You Need To Know About Europe", Germany.
“Strictly speaking, the land does not exist; it is merely dehydrated sea.”
— "All You Need To Know About Europe", Netherlands.
“I rang room service, and asked for a bottle of Perrier, because while I was asleep someone had come in and carpeted my throat.”
— "The Night We Went To Epernay By Way Of Tours-sur-Marne".

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Alan Coren across IJR

Studio characters

Alan CorenAsk the humorist everything the interviews skip.

Ask Genius by OpenServe about Alan Coren Create in Studio Build a game Watch videos