Whenever I’m in a proper bookshop, which is almost never, I like to have a look at the latest bestsellers in the biography section, because of all the genres they have the best titles. To prove the point, here is a sample. First off, the straightforward plays on words:
- My Word is My Bond, by Roger Moore
- Clips from a Life, by Dennis Norden
- Stallone: A Rocky Life, by Frank Sanello
And the winner in this category, Between the Lines: My Story Uncut, by Jason Donovan
In a related category, we have food puns: Humble Pie, by Gordon Ramsay and Spilling the Beans, by Clarissa Dickson-Wright.
Then there are the titles which sound like plays on words, but which aren’t, quite:
- Soul on the Street by William Roache
- Just Biggins, by Christopher Biggins
The winner in this category, unless you can tell me where the play on words comes in, is One Flew Into The Cuckoo’s Egg, by Bill Oddie (perhaps that’s all you need to know).
And finally, the puns which make you wonder whether they started out as a joke which got out of hand:
- A Young Man’s Passage, by Julian Clary
- Cider With Roadies, by Stuart Maconie
The winner in this category as well as the overall winner is Peter Grant: The Man Who “Led Zeppelin”, by one Chris Welch. Congratulations, Chris.