Stephen Pile, Book of Complete Failures

[Old Salt]

Mrs OS insists she saw a review for the above book in the Sunday Times Book Review.

I have searched and searched and searched and I can only find old editions of his 'heroic failures'

I would very much appreciate someone lending me a large helping of advice. She swears she copied it down as written in the Sunday Times, which has long gone to that great recycling centre in the sky.

Old Salt

[mccfluff]

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/

if you scroll down you can see their is a feature on epic failuires but you have to suscribe to read it, sorry

[WAZZARD]

I have in my hand a copy of Stephen Pile's Book of heroic failures - don't know about Complete F or Epic F

[ethandron]

have just dug the review section of the sunday times out of the recycling. the article is headed 'the joy of epic failure' and at the end of the article it says it was extracted from 'the ultimate book of heroic failures'. it's published by faber and faber and copies can be ordered for £10.99, including postage, from the sunday times bookshop on 0845 271 2135.

[Old Salt]

Excellent! That's just the ticket, ethandron............Mrs OS admits she, "Must have copied it down wrong." In over fifty years of marriage, I think that is the first time she has said something like that.

Mccfluff and wazzard, thank you for taking the time to reply, is was much appreciated.

Old Salt

[ethandron]

glad to be of help, old salt :o)

[heathfield]

I know of at least one of Stephen Pile's 'Heroic Failures' that never happened. It originated from a Bangkok English newspaper article that was a total spoof. One of the paper's editors used to take delight in writing made-up tongue-in-cheek items for printing in the Monday edition of the paper. Along with many others, Stephen Pile swallowed the story, hook, line, and sinker! I've found it on the web, here...

http://www.snopes.com/humor/nonsense/piano.asp