My bone is being tickled by a very funny writer over on Substack by name of Daniel Piper …
One excerpt from his Substack to give you a flavor:
Last night I went to a dinner party hosted by a friend. After dinner, one of the guests performed a magic trick involving some cutlery and a napkin, much to everyone’s delight. After that, another guest picked up an acoustic guitar and performed a song by the band Oasis. The host then excitedly asked if anybody else had a creative talent they would like to share. I immediately offered to write a short poem on the spot, featuring all of the guests. They were thrilled, and all watched with fervent anticipation as I took out my notebook and started writing. After ten minutes the poem was complete, and they asked me to read it aloud. I refused. They asked again, and I said no. As an author, my talent is the act of writing, not performance. Plus, my writing is deeply personal, it cannot simply be shared with anyone. They seemed disappointed, even after I assured them the poem was excellent. I couldn’t believe it. They had just had the privilege of watching a Serious Literary Author in the act of writing for a whole ten minutes, and now they were complaining. I thought they were being quite ungrateful.
Something I wrote into The Substack Notes about him:
I don’t always manage to read Daniel Piper each morning, but when I do, my day starts with a minimum of a hearty guffaw all the way through the ‘larf spectrum’ to that which some describe to be that of a screaming banshee, though I prefer to think of it as a chuckle. I appreciate that this might upset the author, who is by his own account a serious writer and experienced littérateur, but I actually don’t care .. because as both my friends will tell you, it is all about me. (I use the term ‘friend’ in the loose meaning of someone I talked to on ‘The Tube’ .. the London one .. I don’t talk to the bloody telly! That’s what screaming is for.)
Anyway all this to say that the tune of this particular ‘piper’ resonates. Deeply. Go try him out. Nothing to lose, everything to gain, which is a rare benefit in these trying times.