I’d been listening on the radio to a recording of Gerard Hoffnung’s speech to the Oxford Union in 1958 in which he read out a letter from a bricklayer to his employers explaining why he needed a period of sick leave. The letter, which was described as “a striking lesson in keeping the upper lip stiff” has become known as “The Bricklayer’s Lament”.
Hoffnung died of a brain haemorrhage aged 34, a year after the recording was made. He had already made a name for himself as a cartoonist, humourist and broadcaster. He was a regular on the radio show, One Minute Please, before it changed its name to Just a Minute. Hoffnung was German. If he’d survived I don’t think anyone would be making jokes about the Germans not having a sense of humour.
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