Craig Brown

Is a world gone haywire beyond satire?
More haywire the better. Liz Truss was the high point of the satirist’s life on earth.

You write a parody diary for Private Eye. Whose voice has been most fun to capture?
WG Sebald and Katie Price. Shame they never married.

Have any of your targets complained? Or been delighted?
Mohamed al Fayed and Alan Sugar spring to mind. Tim Rice once muttered “Bastard” as I was emerging from the loo at Simpson’s just as he was going in, so I took that for a thumbs-down. A surprising number of people have been perfectly happy with my parodies – Nicky Haslam, Sebald, Gyles Brandreth, Malcolm Bradbury, Neil Kinnock.

Haywire contains pen portraits of various comedians. Who would make your personal top five?
Of current comedians – Harry Hill, Kieran Hodgson, Tim Vine, Barry Humphries, Harry and Paul. Of the old guard – Frankie Howerd, The Marx Brothers, Les Dawson.

Who, in modern Britain, wins the Ted Heath Prize for no sense of humour?
Actually, Heath did have a dark sense of humour. And, I’ve just remembered, he was someone who was pleased with a Private Eye parody I did of him, just after Mrs Thatcher’s downfall. Years later, I bumped into his old secretary, who told me he had pinned it to his office wall.

Does your own GSOH ever falter?
All the time, particularly with inanimate objects. I’m always saying “Fuck Off” to electrical appliances and computers. When I was doing my Beatles book, I emerged furious from John Lennon’s old house, after the tour guide had picked an argument with me in front of all the other tourists as to whether or not I should be taking notes. But then my wife pointed out that the whole episode was very funny, so I turned it into a comical chapter in the book.

Who would satirists prefer as next PM?
Bring back Liz Truss! She was comedy gold. That combination of utter self-assurance and complete incompetence is the basis of all clowning.

Does Keir Starmer offer potential as a target of mockery? 
Not a great deal, but the nature of the job means that, even if they start off po-faced, most prime ministers develop into comic figures as they go along. Lack of gravity comes with the office.

How do you feel about fellow old Etonian, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson?
He was a very good humorous journalist who stupidly changed career, to disastrous effect.

Can you get comedic mileage out of Rishi Sunak? He feels expensively Teflon-coated.
I haven’t quite got the hang of him yet, but I think his horrible $5million holiday penthouse, described as “the epitome of urban Santa Monica beach living” suggests he has very naff tastes, so there is comic potential there.

You’ve written that Donald Trump is like Frankie Howerd. How so?
Largely their wacky hair, but also their self-pity, and their core belief that everything is going to pot: “Woe, woe and thrice woe!”

Your satire tends to be good-natured. Who deserves proper spleen?
I think the nature of parody means you have to half-identify with your subjects – when I write them, half of my brain thinks I really am them, while the other half remains detached. If you inject too much spleen, the illusion necessary to parody becomes unbalanced. Fury isn’t really my thing: others do it better. Having said that, I do consider Donald Trump a revolting human being.

You also wrote a book about the late Princess Margaret. What’s her lasting appeal as a subject?
She was exactly on the cusp of tragic and comic.

You have a chapter titled “Bad Hats”. Who’s your top rogue?
In one of the pieces, I deal with John Stonehouse, who I knew slightly. I even went blackberrying in Suffolk with him once, after he’d come out of prison. There was something of the enigma about him, which is always enticing.

Your book on the Beatles, One Two Three Four, won the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize. Which Beatle would you share a desert island with?
Paul. He has the broadest interests, wrote the best songs, and would be perfect on a desert island as he’d take charge.

Edward Lear or Jonathan Swift?
Edward Lear

David Bowie or Keith Richards?
David Bowie. Keith Richards is like that old club bore played by Paul Whitehouse.

What or who formed you as a young satirist?
Auberon Waugh and Willie Donaldson, aka Henry Root, were two of my early heroes, and remain so. Also Alan Bennett and Barry Humphries.

What effect has social media had on the satirist’s art?
It’s kindly provided many more targets. Vanity and self-promotion are always a rich source for humour.

Who’s the funniest writer of the past century?
Auberon Waugh.

What comedic mileage do you see in King Charles III?
The mixture of petulance and grandeur is a sure recipe for comedy.

What epitaph would you like?
Beyond Parody.