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SKINNER & MINA’S LITERARY ROAD TRIP: POPE & SWIFT

IN GENIUS DUO’S FOOTSTEPS

In 2020, the comedian Frank Skinner and the crime writer Denise Mina (both right) followed in the footsteps of dictionary pioneer Samuel Johnson and his biographer James Boswell. Entertaining and informative, it was such a success that they did it again in 2021, for the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. And then again, in 2023, for this series, which is all about the great humorists Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. Skinner is a lively presence, bouncing around as he tells us all about the duo, while Mina provides a more sober perspective as they travel the country. They give us a neat insight into the satirists’ lives and work, beyond the obvious for the oft-quoted Pope (‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’ is one of his) and Swift (Gulliver’s

Travels), and do it all with a light touch. Sky/now

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2023-03-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

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