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03/12/2005: "Mark Twain"

I've just discovered Mark Twain!

I don't mean by that, that I have just found his body while digging the garden. That would be highly improbable, even were I to up my rate of gardening by an inordinate amount, and I suspect that the body would be rather unrecognisable at this late date in any case.

Nor do I mean that I've just found him alive and wandering around the local supermarket looking for a tin of spaghetti hoops. Such an event would move me to the belief that it was an imposter or else some other Mark Twain and not the one famed for his writing, and I would have felt constrained to give him a good kicking, supermarket security guards permitting, rather than report on the event here.

No, what I mean is that I have just discovered what a brilliant writer he is, or rather was.

Now, the fact of it, rather than my discovery, may not come as much of a surprise to the more literate of reader. Although the discovery part may indeed surprise them, having relegated me to being a reader of nothing more imposing than 'Janet and John go to the dentist'. But it's funny how you can go through a large part of your life and not realise that an extremely famous person, who you had marked down as an ancient writer of a couple of boys' adventure stories, actually turns out to be some kind of kindred spirit (if that's not too presumptious).

Let me put this plainly. This man is funny. Very funny. So much so that I narrowly escaped being incarcerated as a lunatic while reading him on the bus (by the time I got off, my end of the bus was completely clear and there was a huddle of nervous-looking passengers at the other end - odd that). He was writing stuff 140 years ago of a calibre that I would be proud to produce today. Okay, some of it has dated a little because of cultural changes (although not much) and some of it I seem to miss the point on, but on the whole it's like opening an aladdin's cave. For those of you who may not be familiar, here's a short excerpt.

Like other great comic writers I know (such as PG Wodehouse), I can already feel him influencing what I write - even in this very article. Actually, that influence may also be readily apparent to readers who know his work - I hope so. So, I say "Thank you Mr Twain and I look forward to reading more". I'd advise anyone out there to do the same.