Les Dawson Non-Fiction Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| The Cosmo Smallpiece guide to male liberation | 1979 | Buy |
| The Les Dawson Joke Book | 1979 | Buy |
| The Amy Pluckett Letters | 1982 | Buy |
| The Malady Lingers on and Other Great Groaners | 1982 | Buy |
| Les Dawson’s Lancashire | 1983 | Buy |
| A Clown Too Many | 1985 | Buy |
| Les Dawson Gives Up | 1989 | Buy |
| No Tears for the Clown | 1992 | Buy |
| Listen to Les | 1993 | Buy |
| Listen To Les 2 | 1995 | Buy |
| Les Dawson’s Secret Notebooks | 2007 | Buy |
| Les Dawson: Masters of Comedy | 2008 | Buy |
| The Dawson Slant | 2009 | Buy |
| Les Dawson’s Joke Book | 2012 | Buy |
| Laugh With Les | 2013 | Buy |
Non-Fiction
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| The Cosmo Smallpiece Guide To Male Liberation | 1979 | Buy |
| The Les Dawson Joke Book | 1979 | Buy |
| The Amy Pluckett Letters | 1982 | Buy |
| The Malady Lingers on and Other Great Groaners | 1982 | Buy |
| Les Dawson’s Lancashire | 1983 | Buy |
| A Clown Too Many | 1985 | Buy |
| Les Dawson Gives Up | 1989 | Buy |
| No Tears for the Clown | 1992 | Buy |
| Listen to Les | 1993 | Buy |
| Listen To Les 2 | 1995 | Buy |
| Les Dawson’s Secret Notebooks | 2007 | Buy |
| Les Dawson: Masters of Comedy | 2008 | Buy |
| The Dawson Slant | 2009 | Buy |
| Les Dawson’s Joke Book | 2012 | Buy |
| Laugh With Les | 2013 | Buy |
Standalone Novels
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| A Card For The Clubs | 1974 | Buy |
| The Spy Who Came… | 1976 | Buy |
| Hitler Was My Mother In Law | 1984 | Buy |
| A Time Before Genesis | 1987 | Buy |
| Come Back with the Wind | 1990 | Buy |
| Well Fared, My Lovely | 1992 | Buy |
| The Blade and the Passion | 1995 | Buy |
Les Dawson was one of Britain’s most popular entertainers, a comedian from Manchester who became a television staple through shows like Opportunity Knocks and his own series throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He had a gift for deadpan delivery and self-deprecating northern humour, and that same sensibility runs through all of his books.
His writing covers a lot of ground. The non-fiction titles include joke collections, regional writing about Lancashire, and his autobiography No Tears for the Clown, which was published just before his death in 1993 and remains the most personal account of his life. His novels, meanwhile, range from comic pastiches to more straightforward genre fiction — Well Fared, My Lovely is a Raymond Chandler spoof, while The Blade and the Passion is historical fiction.
Several of his books were published posthumously, with his notebooks and joke collections appearing through the 2000s and 2010s. For readers discovering him on the page, the autobiography is the natural starting point; for those who want the comedy first, the joke books deliver exactly what they promise.