Robert Wringham (born 28 November 1982) is a British writer, best known for his humor writing and as the editor of ''
New Escapologist
''New Escapologist'' was a UK-based lifestyle magazine between 2007 and 2017, now continued online as subscription essays. The magazine and the current essay series take the stance that work has too central a position in western life and that wo ...
'' magazine. His first collection, ''A Loose Egg'', was shortlisted for the 2015 Leacock Medal. He has also written two histories of
alternative comedy
Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe ...
and a
comic novel
A comic novel is a novel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's litera ...
.
Work
Wringham is primarily a
humorist
A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business ...
. In an article for the one-hundredth edition of ''
Canadian Notes and Queries
''Canadian Notes & Queries'' is a literary magazine published in Canada on a triannual basis.
History and profile
The magazine was first published in 1968 by William Morley as a four-page supplement to the ''Abacus'', the newsletter of the Antiqu ...
'', he expressed a desire to be known as "the waster humorist." He also conveyed a belief in the social value of comic literature and an admiration for the work of
Eric Nicol
Eric Patrick Nicol (December 28, 1919 – February 2, 2011) was a Canadian writer, best known as a longtime humour columnist for the Vancouver, British Columbia newspaper '' The Province''. He also published over 40 books, both original wor ...
,
Susan Juby
Susan Juby (born March 30, 1969)Dave Jenkinson ''CM Magazine'', May 11, 2005. is a Canadian writer. She is currently residing in Nanaimo, British Columbia, where she is a professor of creative writing at Vancouver Island University.
Juby is kno ...
,
Paul Quarrington
Paul Lewis Quarrington (July 22, 1953 – January 21, 2010) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.
Background
Born in Toronto as the middle of three sons in the family of four of Bruce Quarrington,
and
Stuart McLean
Andrew Stuart McLean, (April 19, 1948 – February 15, 2017) was a Canadian radio broadcaster, humorist, monologist, and author, best known as the host of the CBC Radio program ''The Vinyl Cafe''.employment in favor of more creative pursuits. Some notable contributors have been
Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British author and philosopher. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published ''Essays in Love'' (1993), ...
,
Will Self
William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English author, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Sel ...
,
Richard Herring
Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the lead ...
,
Ewan Morrison
Ewan Morrison is a Scottish author and screenwriter, described as "the most fluent and intelligent writer of his generation here in Scotland" by Booker judge Stuart Kelly.
Early life
Morrison was born in Wick, Caithness in 1968, son of the si ...
,
Tom Hodgkinson
Tom Hodgkinson (born 1968) is a British writer and the editor of '' The Idler'' magazine, which he established in 1993 with his friend Gavin Pretor-Pinney. His philosophy, in his published books and articles, is of a relaxed approach to life, ...
,
Luke Rhinehart
George Powers Cockcroft (November 15, 1932 – November 6, 2020), widely known by the pen name Luke Rhinehart, was an American novelist, screenwriter, and nonfiction writer. He is best known for his 1971 novel ''The Dice Man,'' the story of a psyc ...
and
Caitlin Doughty
Caitlin Marie Doughty (born August 19, 1984) is an American mortician, author, blogger, YouTube personality, and advocate for death acceptance and the reform of Western funeral industry practices. She is the owner of Clarity Funerals and Cre ...
.
In 2012,
Go Faster Stripe
Go Faster Stripe is an independent film production and distribution company that operates out of the Chapter Arts Centre, in Cardiff, Wales. The company specialises in the recording of live shows by stand-up comedians who, while in the public ...
published Wringham's first non-fiction book ''You Are Nothing'', which told the story of comedy troupe
Cluub Zarathustra
Cluub Zarathustra was a fringe comedy cabaret act and troupe active between 1994 and 1997. It began as a comedy club in Islington, London, twice went to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was eventually given a Channel 4 television pilot. It is al ...
, whose members included
Stewart Lee
Stewart Graham Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English comedian, screenwriter, and television director. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, deadpan delivery, and consistent breaking of the fourth wall.
Lee b ...
,
Simon Munnery
Simon Munnery, also known as his characters "Alan Parker: Urban Warrior" and "The League Against Tedium", is an English comedian.
He performs mainly to an alternative audience but has pierced the mainstream both with his BBC Radio 1 show in 1 ...
,
Kevin Eldon
Kevin Eldon (born 2 October 1959) is an English actor and comedian. He featured in British comedy television shows of the 1990s including '' Fist of Fun'', ''This Morning with Richard Not Judy'', '' Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge' ...
,
Julian Barratt
Julian Barratt Pettifer (born 4 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor and musician. As a comedian and comic actor, he is known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy. During the 2000s he was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongs ...
,
Graham Linehan
Graham Linehan () (born 22 May 1968) is an Irish television writer and anti-transgender activist. He created or co-created the sitcoms '' Father Ted'' (1995–1998), '' Black Books'' (2000–2004) and '' The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013). He has al ...
,
Sally Phillips
Sally Elizabeth Phillips (born 10 May 1970) is an English actress, television presenter, and comedian. She co-created and was one of the writers of the sketch comedy show '' Smack the Pony''. She is also known for her roles in '' Miranda'' as T ...
and
Johnny Vegas
Michael Joseph Pennington (born 5 September 1970), better known as Johnny Vegas, is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He is known for his thick Lancashire accent, husky voice, overweight appearance, angry comedic rants, and us ...
. The book is written from Wringham's outsider perspective and draws on conflicting interviews with cast and audience members.
2014 saw the publication of ''A Loose Egg,'' a collection of short pieces about Wringham's childhood, bachelorhood and early married life. In 2015, it was longlisted and finally shortlisted for the Leacock Medal.
In 2015, Wringham
crowdfunded
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
a ''New Escapologist''-related book with publisher
Unbound
Unbound may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
*Unbound, formerly the name of Deathbound, a four-piece death metal band from Vaasa, Finland
*''Unbound'', an album by Merciless, 1994
*"Unbound", a song by Ásgeir Trausti, 2017
*"Unboun ...
and the resulting ''Escape Everything!'' was released in 2016. A German edition called ''Ich Bin Raus'' was published in the same year and attracted considerable media attention. A follow-up title was commissioned called ''The Good Life for Wage Slaves'', published by
Heyne Verlag
The Heyne Verlag (formerly Wilhelm Heyne Verlag) is a German publisher based in Munich, which was founded in Dresden in 1934 and sold to Axel Springer in 2000. In 2004 it became part of Random House. Heyne was one of the largest publishing houses ...
in Germany and independently in the UK. When Unbound republished ''Escape Everything!'' as a paperback in 2021, it was retitled ''I'm Out: How to Make an Exit.''
Returning to Go Faster Stripe in 2021, he wrote a second humour collection called ''Stern Plastic Owl''. The following year, Go Faster Stripe published Wringham's second volume of comedy history with a book about the Iceman.
His first novel, ''
Rub-A-Dub-Dub
"Rub-A-Dub-Dub" is an English language nursery rhyme first published at the end of the 18th century in volume two of Hook's ''Christmas Box'' under the title "Dub a dub dub" rather than "Rub a dub dub". It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3 ...
'' was published in 2023. It won a
Saltire Award
The Saltire Society is a membership organisation which aims to promote the understanding of the culture and heritage of Scotland. Founded in 1936, the society was "set up to promote and celebrate the uniqueness of Scottish culture and Scotland’s ...
for Best Cover Design.
Wringham writes for
Joshua Glenn
Joshua Glenn (born October 6, 1967) is an American writer, editor, and semiotics analyst. He is the cofounder of the websites HiLobrow, Significant Objects, and Semionaut. In the 1990s he published the zine ''Hermenaut''.
Early life and educatio ...
's
pop culture
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' ...
website HiLobrow, and for the ''
Idler
The Idler refers to someone idle:
* An idle game
* A slacker, a person who habitually avoids work
* Idler-wheel, a system used to transmit the rotation of the main shaft of a motor to another rotating device
* Idler circuit, a circuit in a param ...
'' magazine where he had a column between 2016 and 2020.
Books
* ''You Are Nothing'' (2012)
* ''A Loose Egg'' (2014)
* ''Escape Everything!'' (2016)
:* ''I'm Out: How to Make an Exit'' (retitled paperback edition) (2021)
* ''The Good Life for Wage Slaves'' (2020)
* ''Stern Plastic Owl'' (2021)
* ''Melt It! The Book of the Iceman'' (2022)
* ''Rub-A-Dub-Dub'' (2023)
Pseudonym
His
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
comes from
James Hogg
James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many o ...
's '' Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner''.
In ''The Good Life for Wage Slaves'', Wringham explains that he'd been blogging under his original name since his early twenties but became self-conscious and in need of creative freedom when googling people became a common practice: "I didn't mind exposing my soul to a few strange nerds on the other side of the planet, but a certain dishonesty is required among friends, isn't it?"
Personal life
Originally from
Dudley
Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...
, Wringham moved to
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...
in 2004. He is also a Resident of Canada.
In 2014 he married his long-term partner Samara, who appears as a
foil
Foil may refer to:
Materials
* Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine
* Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal
* Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food
* Tin foil, metal foil ma ...
in some of his writing.Day of the Coconut Wringham.co.uk. 2 August 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
British Comedy Guide
British Comedy Guide or BCG (formerly the British Sitcom Guide or BSG) is a British website covering all forms of British comedy, across all media. At the time of writing, BCG has published guides to more than 7,000 individual British comedie ...