A well-done history of England's weekly humor publication, Punch, from its 1841 creation. The title comes from the name of the legendary table, darkened with spilled beer and carved with initials of generations of contributors such as A.A. Milne, Thackeray, Thurber, Wodehouse, Mark Twain and many others. Sprinkled with cartoons from Punch, and filled with stories, gossip and intrigues between contributors, this is as much a history of British society through their humor as anything else. I would have liked more and better illustrations. The most surprising tidbit of info was that a Punch editor had written "Our American Cousin", the play that Lincoln was watching when he was killed. ( )