They’d None of ‘em be Missed

Richard Suart, heir to the great Gilbert and Sullivan singers of the past, has made the rôle of KoKo, Lord High Executioner, his own

Over the last twenty years his topical version of the Little List song has become a focus of audience expectation and hilarity

In this book he looks back over the Lists that have raised such laughter at the Coliseum and at the history of this immensely malleable song, taking in previous performers such as George Grossmith, Martyn Green, Groucho Marx, Frankie Howerd and Eric Idle - not to mention poets as varied as John Hollander and Tim Rice

Illustrated with hundreds of colour illustrations, many never previously reproduced, this is a delightful biography of one of the most entertaining songs in the English language

"Here’s a how-de-do! Our leading contemporary exponent of the G&S patter roles reveals himself to be a consummate parodist, worthy of the master. Re-live the celebrities and scandals of the last twenty-five years with this wonderful collection of reworkings of the Little List song from The Mikado, delightfully illustrated and supplemented by fascinating versions from earlier times and from overseas. A source of innocent merriment, indeed – no boiling oil or melted lead for this Ko-Ko" ~ Ian Bradley, author of The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan, and Oh Joy, Oh Rapture! The Continuing Phenomenon of Gilbert & Sullivan

"Richard Suart’s portrayal of the Lord High Executioner has become a legendary part of our production, and you can tell from their reaction that the audience revels in his idiosyncratic version of this cocky opportunist. Added to which they gasp, sometimes with shocked disbelief, at the inventive irreverence of his repeatedly re-invented Little List. So it’s a great delight to have a complete anthology of Richard’s rhymic ribaldries from which the reader can appreciate the social and political idiocies of two decades. Bravissimo!" ~ Sir Jonathan Miller, director of the ENO Mikado
9781843680369