Bill Tidy (1933–2023)

Tidy did a lot of good work for Punch, but this collection of strips he did for Private Eye is rather weak. Not so much in the art, but in the gags, such as they are. Mostly a series of two-parters with a clog dancing team acting like hooligans, which may or may not have been a parody of soccer fans of the era. Frankly, past the first six or so, your eyes glaze over. Completists only.

I was sniggering and saying OMG in equal measure while reading this book. It is about all those dirty little secrets that the stuffy museums and archaeologists does not want us to know about! So interesting. These books make history come alive...

Not Bill Tidy jokes, but rather odd newspaper stories collected by Graham Nown on the left hand pages with illustrations on the right hand ones by Bill Tidy. Tidy is a great humorist and his drawings suits his jokes perfectly, but here he is over his head - a great illustrator he is not. And the stories are not very funny.

I bought this book at my first stop on a two week vacation in England...it was at the ruins of a Roman town in St. Albans.

I am an archaeologist and it really gave me a laugh. Short chapters and an easy read made it fun. My only wish was that it have more "disgraceful" stories...