A Way With Words...

Best known as a pun gent for the likes of Miranda, Not Going Out and Top Gear, Guildford comedian Paul Kerensa meets Matthew Williams to discuss stand-up comedy, caffeine inspiration and his brand new book

- Paul Kerensa

IF you’ve ever spotted a quietly spoken, bespectacled gentleman sat in the corner of Guildford train station’s Costa Coffee jotting down thoughts with a childish twinkle in his eye, then chances are you were in the presence of Paul Kerensa.

Best known as the razor wit who adds the sharp edges to the likes of Miranda, Not Going Out and Top Gear, recently he’s been tackling a subject that is likely to offend many. Well, at least pre-December.

You see, while the rest of us, have been moving on with our lives in a desperate attempt to avoid mince pies, mulled wine and carols, he’s launched himself into the deepest darkest recesses of Santa’s sack in search of, well, the biography of Christmas. To rub it in for all us Scrooges, he’s then published Hark! in autumn. Bah Humbug!

“What can I say, I really love Christmas,” he laughs. “Admittedly the book is a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be when I started but it was like pulling on the thread of, well, a Christmas jumper. You’re looking to write just one page about Dickens but then suddenly you’ve got to mention that most of his first Christmases were snowy, which inspired why we have our white Christmas cliché… that leads onto a mini-Ice Age… then you find out that the cosy family Christmas idyll was probably started by Washington Irving rather than Dickens – and he’s the guy who invented Gotham… well how on earth did Batman get involved with Christmas suddenly…?! Before you know it, you’re not sure what to leave out. I’m not a historian; I’m a storian. I just love stories.”