WHEN John Clarke died in April 2017, we mourned as if we had lost a friend or a member of the family. After all, for the best part of half a century, since he burst into our lives as Fred Dagg in 1974, he was many things: performer, actor, writer, satirist and commentator in both Australia and New Zealand.
In this entertaining memoir, Lorin Clarke tells the story of growing up with her famous father, her art- historian mother Helen, and her little sister Lucia. Much has been written about John Clarke, but this is the insider's view of the stories he told about his childhood, of the dinner parties full of New Zealanders, and the conversation with his in-laws that enabled him to imagine a career that did not yet exist.
Would that be funny? is about the million little things that define any family, not just its private folklore, in-jokes and secret slang, but the triumphs and traumas that define generations.
In her delightful book Lorin Clarke, author of the celebrated podcast The Fitzroy Diaries, brings her own idyllic and nerdy childhood to life, and draws a fascinating portrait of the private man behind the household name.
'This beautiful memoir honours love, grief and riotous fun. An utter joy to read.'
KAZ COOKE
