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Complete Yes Minister

By Jonathan Lynn, Antony Jay

(25)

| Paperback | 9780563206651

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Yes Minister

Yes Minister is a fictional diary, based on the sitcom of the same name, in which James Hacker recounts his struggles with the British civil service as minister of the Department of Administrative Affairs, or the DAA.
Beside Hacker, Sir Humphrey Appleby and Bernard Woolley are the other main ... (continue)

Yes Minister is a fictional diary, based on the sitcom of the same name, in which James Hacker recounts his struggles with the British civil service as minister of the Department of Administrative Affairs, or the DAA.
Beside Hacker, Sir Humphrey Appleby and Bernard Woolley are the other main characters. Sir Humphrey, the witty mandarin, represents the will of the whole civil service and is the major countering force against his minister. Sandwiched
between Hacker and Humphrey, Bernard acts more like a cushion either successfully helping to crack the conundrum aroused in different episodes or cock it up. A must read for anyone who enjoys the British sense of humor.
Watching the original comedy is highly recommended which personally think is even better than the book. Real pleasure to watch the show-stopping performances by Nigel Hawthorne, who plays Sir Humphrey as a brilliant civil servant at stonewalling and cracking crises with aplomb.
A website dedicated to this definitive piece of work is enclosed herewith:
http://www.yes-minister.com/

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worrywalt said on Jun 12, 2008 | Add your feedback

Set in the Thatcher era, this diary of Jim Hacker, a fictional Minister of Administrative Affairs, is a hilarious and sarcastic take on the bureaucracy and inertia of the UK Government. Though the backdrop was the 1980s, it still rings true nowadays.
Although I enjoyed every page of this totalli ... (continue)

Set in the Thatcher era, this diary of Jim Hacker, a fictional Minister of Administrative Affairs, is a hilarious and sarcastic take on the bureaucracy and inertia of the UK Government. Though the backdrop was the 1980s, it still rings true nowadays.
Although I enjoyed every page of this totalling amusing, funny and a bit exaggerated account of Hacker's daily fight with Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary of Administrative Affairs, I can't help wondering if the UK government were really run that way, how could it have achieved a semblance of effective governance of which the British are so proud of?

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Tracy W said on May 10, 2010 | Add your feedback

Un libro che è un ricordo

Questo libro porta la dedica di Reneè, da Birmingham, Mosley: "On a beautiful April morning, in the garden few hours before flying back home" 25/04/87.
The Complete Yes Minister
Quotes
"Its closely observed portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power has given me hours of ... (continue)

Questo libro porta la dedica di Reneè, da Birmingham, Mosley: "On a beautiful April morning, in the garden few hours before flying back home" 25/04/87.
The Complete Yes Minister
Quotes
"Its closely observed portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power has given me hours of pure joy."
- Margaret Thatcher
“We have had diaries from other Cabinet Ministers, but none I think which have been quite so illuminating...It is a fascinating diary...It is shorter than Barbara Castles'...and although it is rather more accurate than Dick Crossman's, it is distinctly funnier”
- Lord Allen of Abbeydale (formerly Permanent Secretary at the Home Office) in The Times
“It has an entertainment and educational value which is unique. It is uproariously funny and passes the acid test of becoming more amusing at every subsequent reading...I will go so far as to claim that in the characters of Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby, Messrs Lynn and Jay have created something as immortal as PG Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and Jeeves”
- Brian Walden, The Standard
"Language is the key to the comedy here, and it often seems that these pages were written by some madcap combination of Jonathan Swift, George Bernard Shaw and the George Orwell of "Politics and English Language." Poor Jim has so much to learn. "What's the difference," he asks, "between 'under consideration?' and 'under active consideration'?" "'Under consideration,'" he is told, "means we've lost the file. 'Under active consideration' means we're trying to find it!" Similarly, Jim slowly comes to understand that "a controversial decision will merely lose you votes, a courageous decision will lose you the election." And on the matter of private information, "RESTRICTED means it was in the papers yesterday. CONFIDENTIAL means it won't be in the papers till today."
- Alan Ryan, The Washington Post
"The funniest, wittiest and truest piece of political satire to be published on either side of the Atlantic in the post-Evelyn Waugh era."
- Christopher Buckley, New York Times
"Not since the Watergate tapes has government been so clarified."
- Roy Blount, Jr.
"Yes Minister skewers the pettiness and pomposity to which all bureaucracies are prone."
- Elliot Richardson
"The book is full of wildly successful apothegms…connoisseurs of transatlantic humor will find much to laugh at."
- Los Angeles Times
"A book of sage and savage wit - its satire is on a par with the morning's headlines." - Larry Gelbart
"Sustained humor and exquisite dialogue are only a part of Yes Minister's unique appeal. It is genuine satire, a particular way of looking at man's political nature."
- Abba Eban
"Yes Minister is an amusingly literate, sharply satirical account of the exchanges of quid pro quo necessary to run any government. The book surpasses its TV origins and stands firmly on its own merits. One the bestseller lists in England for over three years, this provocative satire could well be considered a British Doonesbury."
- Publisher's Weekly
"Yes Minister, a delightful comedy of manners filled with subtle witticisms and sharp satire, is the perfect book to read in snatches."
- Orlando Sentinel
"The Complete Yes Minister is an example of British humor at its best."
- Tallahassee Democrat
"No one who has seen the BBC series "Yes Minister" will be likely to forget the skill with which Sir Humphrey sets about manipulating his own minister, the Right Hon. James Hacker… Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay succeeded in creating an outstanding comic series. That they should now have turned it into an equally entertaining book is in large part, of course, a tribute to their original material. But it also reflects the skill with which they have adapted it - recasting the stories in the form of extracts from hacker's diaries weaving in interviews and their own straight-faced explanatory comments, peppering the narrative with newspaper clippings, cartoons and official memoranda (all reproduced in facsimile and all cunning parodies of the real thing)…"The Complete Yes Minister" is guaranteed, as far as any book can be, to produce happy little explosions of laughter."
- John Gross, New York Times
"Madly comic."
- Christian Science Monitor
"Enough can't be said about The Complete Yes Minister. It is hysterically funny stuff- except when you cringe at the civil service's double-dealing tactics against elected officials. That alone is Dickensian stuff… The Complete Yes Minister will keep you interested for at least the 500 pages of paper it consumes and, more likely, for years of joyous re-reading."
- Santa Cruz Sentinel
"Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay understand government and politics. They also understand the art of satire. Their book is marvelous."
- Dallas News
"The Complete Yes Minister is hilarious…and should be required reading for every politician and/or government leader in America."
- Washington Post
"A delightfully silly satirical novel… that tells us more about how the British system - indeed all government - is run than the mot penetrating journalistic analysis ever has done."
- Chicago Tribune
"Yes Minister [is] a very funny show - clever, perceptive and well-developed characters. The book, because of its ingenious form, and because of the freedom gained in moving from acting to printed words, is even funnier."
- Columbus Dispatch
"The Complete Yes Minister is guaranteed, as far as any book can be, to produce happy little explosions of laughter."
- New York Times

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Antonio Gallo said on Dec 25, 2008 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

In the form of Jim Hacker's diary, this book recounts the 21 episodes of the three seasons of Yes, Minister. In addition to the witty dialogues and penetrating understanding of the civil service, you would be exposed to Jim Hacker's observations of the government as a career politician and essential ... (continue)

In the form of Jim Hacker's diary, this book recounts the 21 episodes of the three seasons of Yes, Minister. In addition to the witty dialogues and penetrating understanding of the civil service, you would be exposed to Jim Hacker's observations of the government as a career politician and essentially an outsider. Extremely humorous and relevant.

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s tsui said on Nov 19, 2006 | Add your feedback

hilarious brit political satire rocks!

who know british politics can be sooo funny? not me but this is excellent. the characters are so rich, you wonder if it's fact or fiction. but made no mistake about it, it makes fun of british politics as only british writers can... go, and have a read!!

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fatfacefan said on Jul 15, 2006 | Add your feedback