Handling Edna, The Unauthorised Biography

By Barry Humphries

Hachette Australia, 2009, 412 pages, ISBN 0733624006, 9780733624001

Having seen every show, film, TV programme and book written by Barry Humphries I did not expect to be surprised by this, his 4th autobiography, and I was not disappointed.

The story is the same, more or less a melange of his two previous autobiographies and Edna’s "My Gorgeous Life," plus the new admission that, from time to time at least, Barry himself dresses as Edna and pretends to be she.

None of this matters, though. We all know Edna is a discrete personality. Barry is alone with the conundrum of her existence, and the jokes are almost as funny the fourth time around as they were when they wrecked me on the rocks of hysteria 40 years ago.

October 2009