Alistair Beaton

Alistair Beaton (born 1947) is a Scottish left wing political satirist, journalist, radio presenter, novelist and television writer. At one point in his career he was also a speechwriter for Gordon Brown. Image File history File links A_Beaton_Camden. ... Image File history File links A_Beaton_Camden. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Political satire is a subgenre of general satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics, politicians and public affairs. ... A speechwriter is a person who composes speeches that will be read by another person. ... This article is about the British Chancellor of the Exchequer. ...

Born in Glasgow, Beaton was educated at the Universities of Edinburgh, Moscow and Bochum and graduated from Edinburgh University with First Class Honours in Russian and German. He lives in Holloway, London. Glasgow (or Glaschu in Gaelic) is Scotlands largest city and unitary council, situated on the River Clyde in the countrys west central lowlands. ... The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... Moscow State University campus M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russian: Московский Государственный Университет имени Ðœ.Ð’.Ломоносова, often abbreviated МГУ, MSU, MGU) is the largest and oldest university in Russia, founded in 1755. ... The University of Bochum (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) is the first new founded university in Germany after World War II. Having 35,000 students, it is one of the 10 biggest universities in Germany. ... Holloway is an area in North London in the London Borough of Islington and follows the line of the A1 road. ...

Works

Non-fiction

• The Little Book of Complete Bollocks (1999)
• The Little Book of New Labour Bollocks (2000)
• The Little Book of Management Bollocks (2001)

Fiction

• Don Juan on the Rocks (novel, 1994)
• Drop the Dead Donkey 2000 (novel, 1994) (co-authored with Andy Hamilton, after the British sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey)
• A Planet for the President (novel, 2004)

See also: 1993 in literature, other events of 1994, 1995 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Andy Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panelist, director and comedy scriptwriter for television and radio. ... Drop the Dead Donkey was a situation comedy that ran on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1998. ... A Planet for the President A Planet for the President (2004) is a novel by Alistair Beaton. ... See also: 2003 in literature, other events of 2004, 2005 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

Stage plays

• The Ratepayer's Iolanthe (co-written with Ned Sherrin) (1984)
• The Metropolitan Mikado (also co-written with Sherrin) (1985)
• Feelgood (2001) (a satire on New Labour spin doctors)
• Follow My Leader (a 2004 play with music by Richard Blackford)

Ned Sherrin (born 18 February 1931 in Somerset, England) is a broadcaster, author and stage director. ... New Labour is an alternative name of the British political Labour Party. ... In public relations, spin is a usually pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in ones own favor of an event or situation that is designed to bring about the most positive result possible. ...

Translations and adaptations

• Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector (from Russian)
• Gogol's The Nose'(based on the Gogol short story of the same name)
• La Vie Parisienne' (from French)
• Die Fledermaus (from German)

Nikolai Gogol For the James Bond ally, see General Gogol Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol (Russian: , Ukrainian: ) (April 1, 1809 - March 4, 1852) was a Ukrainian-born Russian writer. ... The Inspector General or The Government Inspector (in Russian, Ревизор) is a satirical play by 19th century Russian playwright and novelist Nikolai Gogol, published and produced in 1836. ... The Nose is a satirical short story by Nikolai Gogol, subsequently made into an opera by Dmitri Shostakovich. ... Scene from the 1984 version. ...

Television

• Not The Nine O'Clock News (1979-1982)
• It'll All Be Over in Half an Hour (1983)
• Spitting Image (1984-1996)
• Incident on the Line and The Way, the Truth, the Video (from Tickets for the Titanic, 1987)
• Downwardly Mobile (1994)
• Mit fünfzig küssen Männer anders (screenplay, 1998; based on a novel by Dorit Zinn)
• A Very Social Secretary (2005) (about David Blunkett's affair with Kimberly Quinn)

Not The Nine OClock News was a ground-breaking comedy television programme shown on the BBC broadcast from 1979 to 1982. ... Spitting Image was a satirical puppet-show that ran on Britains ITV Network from 1984 to 1996. ... David Blunkett The Right Honourable David Blunkett (born June 6, 1947) is a British Labour Party politician and has been Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside since 1987. ... Kimberly Quinn (born 1961 as Kimberly Solomon, also formerly known as Kimberly Fortier) is an American journalist, commentator, and magazine publisher. ...

External links

• Alistair Beaton: "Nanny Doesn't Know Best" (The Times, March 29, 2004) (about the war in Iraq and its treatment in Follow My Leader)
• "Lunatics in the White House? Surely not?" (Camden New Journal, November 19, 2004) (about the genesis of A Planet for the President).