Louise Lee - Victorian Comedy and Laughter: Conviviality, Jokes and Dissent

Cover image Tom Howey

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Many thanks to Jane Darcy, who organised the Victorian Comedy Conference at University College London, from which many of these articles are drawn, and to the contributors for their enthusiasm, patience and good humour. I am greatly indebted, too, to Milena Kozic, friend and former Ph.D. student at Kings College London, who has acted as an invaluable consultant and assistant on this book, and to Alastair Sherwood, without whose help it might never have been finished. Thanks, also, to Camille Davies, Shaun Vigil and Rebecca Hinsley at Palgrave for steering it wisely and kindly to completion. The students of the third-year undergraduate course Laughing Victorians at Roehampton University, London, deserve a special mention for their many excellent ideas and insights. Much gratitude, too, to my husband Johnny Lee and daughter Georgina for their wisecracking fun and encouragement. This book is dedicated to my parents Carole and Charles Walkerboth consummately good gigglersand to the memory of my brother, Sam Walker (19662015), whose awesome puns are missed every day.