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He Used Thought as a Wife: An Anthology of Poems & Conversations From Inside
In March, Tim Key got locked down, found an orange pen and started writing poems. Then he started writing down his conversations. Zoom, phone, yelled heart-to-hearts from kitchen window to pavement. This book is the result. A paperback account of one man’s experience of the most peculiar moment in our recent history.
484 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 14, 2020
108 people are currently reading
831 people want to read
About the author
Tim Key
19 books262 followersKey has written four books. His most recent focuses on the lockdown of 2020. His others are collections of poems and other bits and bobs. He also does other things: stand-up comedy, acting, Alan Partridge's sidekick.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Key
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Key
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
March 5, 2021
About the time I deleted my Goodreads ratings (and how that backfired)
It took at least half an hour. One by one, I clicked on all the books that I had ever marked as ‘read’ on Goodreads, deleted my ratings so that all the stars disappeared, unchecked the box that said ‘add to my update feed’ so that my friends on Goodreads wouldn’t get the 188 notifications, and saved my changes. And that almost 200 times. I also put the books on the right ‘bookshelf’ if that was necessary: novels on the novel shelf, poems on the poem shelf. In the meantime, I listened to music, I thought about all the books that I had read and above all, I felt like it was an act of resistance.
Ever since I made an account on the book-centered social medium, I rated every book from 1 to 5 stars. Thoughtless, because it was an option, and because it felt complete. I rarely gave 1 star (who am to think a book is so shite?), same story with 5 stars (it’s gotta stay special). 2 only when highly irritated, and I found 3 all but easy. 4 stars. I only really gave 4 stars. Because I think giving stars is awkward. A book can speak to you because of so many reasons, and that doesn’t fit inside a small symbol. And mainly, I don’t want to rate my books. Why does everything have to be judged? And why the hell do I have to judge it?
I now have a ratings-free Goodreads. The books are lined up securely. It feels good and organized. I don’t wanna say that I enjoyed it, but I sure was pleased with myself. Until I started the book I’m reading right now, as I now realize that I got myself in principled trouble.
I’m reading Tim Key’s ‘He used thought as a wife’ (what a title!) and I enjoy reading it to a ridiculous degree. Tim Key is a British poet and comedian, and this book is a fat collection of poems and conversations. The book is dedicated to ‘all those who got involved with the lockdown’. Absurd pieces of work wrap a report of lockdown I, including all its loneliness and madness. The lines are ludicrous at times, but equally funny and touching. In the run-up to the first lockdown, his mother asked ‘Well, are we locking our doors ourselves or are they coming round in a truck and locking us in from the outside with new locks?’
I feel joy while reading it. That may sound a bit ordinary, but I don’t think ‘joy’ is a typical reading experience. But now it is joy. I often chuckle out loud, much I read for a second time, and I constantly feel like sharing pieces with others. I do share quite some pieces with others. I think about it almost constantly, the whole day through. In principle I’d say that no one wants to read books about the lockdown, – I faintly feel averted from any ads for yet another collection of columns about corona – but this works. The absurdity creates distance from it all and space to breathe. It makes it stranger, but more sincere as well. It is extremely funny, and weirdly comforting.
It’s very pleasing in appearance as well. It has been designed by the ‘sickeningly talented’ Emily Juniper. I love holding the book. Incredible design, beautiful paper, best kind of blue. I sometimes flip through it, just for the sake of it. I take it with me from the living room to the bedroom and vice versa, also if I don’t plan on reading in it.
If I weren’t a slave to my own literary-critical (?) choice, I’d straight up give this book 5 stars. But what do I have to do with my revolting enthusiasm now?
-- As posted on http://lottewijbrands.nl/about-that-t... --
It took at least half an hour. One by one, I clicked on all the books that I had ever marked as ‘read’ on Goodreads, deleted my ratings so that all the stars disappeared, unchecked the box that said ‘add to my update feed’ so that my friends on Goodreads wouldn’t get the 188 notifications, and saved my changes. And that almost 200 times. I also put the books on the right ‘bookshelf’ if that was necessary: novels on the novel shelf, poems on the poem shelf. In the meantime, I listened to music, I thought about all the books that I had read and above all, I felt like it was an act of resistance.
Ever since I made an account on the book-centered social medium, I rated every book from 1 to 5 stars. Thoughtless, because it was an option, and because it felt complete. I rarely gave 1 star (who am to think a book is so shite?), same story with 5 stars (it’s gotta stay special). 2 only when highly irritated, and I found 3 all but easy. 4 stars. I only really gave 4 stars. Because I think giving stars is awkward. A book can speak to you because of so many reasons, and that doesn’t fit inside a small symbol. And mainly, I don’t want to rate my books. Why does everything have to be judged? And why the hell do I have to judge it?
I now have a ratings-free Goodreads. The books are lined up securely. It feels good and organized. I don’t wanna say that I enjoyed it, but I sure was pleased with myself. Until I started the book I’m reading right now, as I now realize that I got myself in principled trouble.
I’m reading Tim Key’s ‘He used thought as a wife’ (what a title!) and I enjoy reading it to a ridiculous degree. Tim Key is a British poet and comedian, and this book is a fat collection of poems and conversations. The book is dedicated to ‘all those who got involved with the lockdown’. Absurd pieces of work wrap a report of lockdown I, including all its loneliness and madness. The lines are ludicrous at times, but equally funny and touching. In the run-up to the first lockdown, his mother asked ‘Well, are we locking our doors ourselves or are they coming round in a truck and locking us in from the outside with new locks?’
I feel joy while reading it. That may sound a bit ordinary, but I don’t think ‘joy’ is a typical reading experience. But now it is joy. I often chuckle out loud, much I read for a second time, and I constantly feel like sharing pieces with others. I do share quite some pieces with others. I think about it almost constantly, the whole day through. In principle I’d say that no one wants to read books about the lockdown, – I faintly feel averted from any ads for yet another collection of columns about corona – but this works. The absurdity creates distance from it all and space to breathe. It makes it stranger, but more sincere as well. It is extremely funny, and weirdly comforting.
It’s very pleasing in appearance as well. It has been designed by the ‘sickeningly talented’ Emily Juniper. I love holding the book. Incredible design, beautiful paper, best kind of blue. I sometimes flip through it, just for the sake of it. I take it with me from the living room to the bedroom and vice versa, also if I don’t plan on reading in it.
If I weren’t a slave to my own literary-critical (?) choice, I’d straight up give this book 5 stars. But what do I have to do with my revolting enthusiasm now?
-- As posted on http://lottewijbrands.nl/about-that-t... --
January 24, 2021
I'm not often moved to write a review, but this book deserves the highest praise.
No-one captures the claustrophobia, loneliness and weirdness of lockdown like Tim Key. It made me laugh a lot and cry a little bit too.
No-one captures the claustrophobia, loneliness and weirdness of lockdown like Tim Key. It made me laugh a lot and cry a little bit too.
February 18, 2022
Is it possible to love anything or anyone more than I love this book? Probably.
Does it feel like it right now? No. It doesn't.
It's SO good?? Wtf Tim, your brain is a wonder and I'm in awe. The book is very funny, joyful, perfectly odd, sad, relatable and... cozy? I felt snuggled up reading this book. It took care of me.
It's so good.
Does it feel like it right now? No. It doesn't.
It's SO good?? Wtf Tim, your brain is a wonder and I'm in awe. The book is very funny, joyful, perfectly odd, sad, relatable and... cozy? I felt snuggled up reading this book. It took care of me.
It's so good.
November 26, 2021
Curiously effective COVID plague diary, feeling like it was written in real time, with all the subtle shifts from week to week during the first 12 weeks of lockdown.
August 25, 2022
Establishing early on the goodreads that this is my comfort book, thereby 5 stars.
Concerning, as this is the most accurately lonely account of lockdown ‘faeces’, and it’s clear at the top. Key can’t stick to a traditional format. He’s on that pedestal you put certain artists in your teens where they’re simply untouchable to you for that very reason.
Almost a theatre performance in its dialogues, a novella in its narrative and it’s also the worst possible phrase: ‘a character study’. Not only of Key, but all of us across 2020. Slow, plodding & frequently in a daytime bath - ‘Thought as a Wife’ harrows and entertains in equal measure.
Alone in this intersection of spoken waffle and poetry, there’s nothing else like Tim’s writing and it’s in top form here. Moreso than the books 2021 Sequel ‘Mulberry’ that loses much of this books charm by changing setting to outdoors. Tim’s Flat, complete with floor plan provided, does claustrophobia like a fart in a lift. Well humoured, but dense and suffocating.
A step ahead of us all, the writing here makes me so happy. Much in the same way as folk artist Richard Dawson, in these poems Key has a indescribable knack for blowing the inane and inconsequential up to absurd proportions to exemplify humanity and community. Beyond any play or documentary or governmental enquiry in the fallout from two years ago, the blue book makes everyones sense of confusion and desperation over those months feel important and valued at the person by person scale. Rather than the blanket shart of ‘the country’s’ pandemic problems. When observed under this strange beautifully printed microscope we see we all had a piercing loneliness that can now feel all but forgotten.
I’ll note some of my favourite poems here when I next flick though. Stilts stands out (ha), as does Plugholing. I love so many of them.
As a historical document, it’s Pepys. It does what it seeks out to achieve. As a work by a comic, it’s tremendously funny and makes me punch the air at its wit, foresight and genius. As a novella it has an embedded friendship love story between author and graphic designer that is untouchable. I kill for a well written sort of flirty friendship. I need to show my friend Grayce this as a benchmark to the appeal of non-romance. Never will a book be written in such a way. And playing with form makes me want to play with myself it’s fantastic.
Will always remain a 5-star book to me, kept me happy when everything wasn’t. It continues to do so time and time again. The driving arc of this “book” (if you can call it that) is how a middle age man misses the pub with John Kearnes. Tremendous.
Concerning, as this is the most accurately lonely account of lockdown ‘faeces’, and it’s clear at the top. Key can’t stick to a traditional format. He’s on that pedestal you put certain artists in your teens where they’re simply untouchable to you for that very reason.
Almost a theatre performance in its dialogues, a novella in its narrative and it’s also the worst possible phrase: ‘a character study’. Not only of Key, but all of us across 2020. Slow, plodding & frequently in a daytime bath - ‘Thought as a Wife’ harrows and entertains in equal measure.
Alone in this intersection of spoken waffle and poetry, there’s nothing else like Tim’s writing and it’s in top form here. Moreso than the books 2021 Sequel ‘Mulberry’ that loses much of this books charm by changing setting to outdoors. Tim’s Flat, complete with floor plan provided, does claustrophobia like a fart in a lift. Well humoured, but dense and suffocating.
A step ahead of us all, the writing here makes me so happy. Much in the same way as folk artist Richard Dawson, in these poems Key has a indescribable knack for blowing the inane and inconsequential up to absurd proportions to exemplify humanity and community. Beyond any play or documentary or governmental enquiry in the fallout from two years ago, the blue book makes everyones sense of confusion and desperation over those months feel important and valued at the person by person scale. Rather than the blanket shart of ‘the country’s’ pandemic problems. When observed under this strange beautifully printed microscope we see we all had a piercing loneliness that can now feel all but forgotten.
I’ll note some of my favourite poems here when I next flick though. Stilts stands out (ha), as does Plugholing. I love so many of them.
As a historical document, it’s Pepys. It does what it seeks out to achieve. As a work by a comic, it’s tremendously funny and makes me punch the air at its wit, foresight and genius. As a novella it has an embedded friendship love story between author and graphic designer that is untouchable. I kill for a well written sort of flirty friendship. I need to show my friend Grayce this as a benchmark to the appeal of non-romance. Never will a book be written in such a way. And playing with form makes me want to play with myself it’s fantastic.
Will always remain a 5-star book to me, kept me happy when everything wasn’t. It continues to do so time and time again. The driving arc of this “book” (if you can call it that) is how a middle age man misses the pub with John Kearnes. Tremendous.
October 9, 2022
A cracking title. Some humorous poems about lockdown, and a couple of genuinely poignant moments mixed in with mostly bland, sometimes banal, and almost always unkind conversations between Key and his friends. (I appreciate that the conversations were partially supposed to be banal, to reflect what lockdown was like, but I think they were the wrong kind of banal - a wearying rather than clever kind) After reading the conversations, one can't help but wonder why they remain his friends as he seems to take no genuine interest in any of them, mocks their attempts to care for him, and insults them at every turn. He does claim that some of the conversations are entirely made up, others partially imagined - if even a fraction are true, however, he seems like a fairly obnoxious person, and I struggled to endure the almost constant self-regard.
Is comedy more important than kindness? Is meanness towards those closest to you necessary for quality humour? Is a poem about a Jacob Reece Mogg-like character masturbating a cat really that funny? I think the answer to each of those questions is no.
Week 11 and week 12 made me laugh more than the rest of the book combined, did slightly redeem my impression of Key, and did tie things together nicely and make the effort to get through the book feel somewhat rewarded, but overall I finished this book dissapointed at what could have been a highly amusing, even profound memoir of a turbulent period. 2 stars
Is comedy more important than kindness? Is meanness towards those closest to you necessary for quality humour? Is a poem about a Jacob Reece Mogg-like character masturbating a cat really that funny? I think the answer to each of those questions is no.
Week 11 and week 12 made me laugh more than the rest of the book combined, did slightly redeem my impression of Key, and did tie things together nicely and make the effort to get through the book feel somewhat rewarded, but overall I finished this book dissapointed at what could have been a highly amusing, even profound memoir of a turbulent period. 2 stars
August 11, 2021
Reflections and lessons learned:
“You can catch it over Zoom…”
“You’re kidding me…”
Without context, this comes across as a prolonged fever dream, delivered in poems and dialogues, featuring technology, home delivery, government figures, hair growth, banana bread, avoiding online quizzes and many other pandemic lockdown familiars. Mostly comedy and connection thoughts made this completely appeal from the outset and many poems had to be read out to my husband to share in the recent satirical memories
“You can catch it over Zoom…”
“You’re kidding me…”
Without context, this comes across as a prolonged fever dream, delivered in poems and dialogues, featuring technology, home delivery, government figures, hair growth, banana bread, avoiding online quizzes and many other pandemic lockdown familiars. Mostly comedy and connection thoughts made this completely appeal from the outset and many poems had to be read out to my husband to share in the recent satirical memories
October 16, 2024
jesus christ. pandemic-era media is such an absolute time capsule and this was clearly written as an entry into that category, which means its mix of self-aware & utter chaos hits at times like a sucker punch. like, what a crazy time we all lived in! i feel like we ~as a society~ have still not processed how wild that first march-august 2020 stretch of covid was! this is a book that at times is funny and a lot of times deeply emotional and is very successful in transporting the reader back to the mental state of quarantine/lockdown. i especially enjoyed the dialogues—which, at first, seemed to be a gimmick, but soon transformed into scenes from a play of sorts, cataloguing the downwards spiral of isolation. gah, parts were brutal! it was also interesting that this focused on the lockdown and not really the pandemic at all, something that made me nervous at the beginning but i do think was ultimately very effective. the meta nature was playful and also felt like pressing a bruise, and reading this with the knowledge that the author + designer then went and made a second installment because they went back into lockdown is like watching a movie and knowing there's a sad ending.
one line i particularly enjoyed:
"You know when a book's about to end, don't worry about that. You feel that in your hand."
and
"Part of me doesn't want it to end."
one line i particularly enjoyed:
"You know when a book's about to end, don't worry about that. You feel that in your hand."
and
"Part of me doesn't want it to end."
January 21, 2023
Bizar, en ontzettend goed. De gevoelens van claustrofobie en vervreemding die boven kwamen tijdens de eerste lockdown worden met een bijzonder geslaagde combinatie van zwaarte en luchtigheid overgebracht, geen sinecure. Blij dat ik het tweede deel ook al gekocht heb.
March 6, 2022
Like, maybe a bit Becketty? Very funny; not at all pleasant.
August 19, 2023
This was like opening up a time capsule from the start of lockdown. Funny, claustrophobic, weird - vintage Key.
June 8, 2023
Just top stuff, very sad and very silly and very lovely. Not read anything structured in quite the same way. It feels weird thinking about lockdown three years on, but this book captures its complete surrealness very nicely, would recommend!
February 7, 2024
Incredible stuff
January 14, 2023
So evocative of a time that feels ages ago, and also last week. Inspired me to have banana bread for the first time in two years.
October 24, 2022
Loved it, whilst simultaneously finding the trauma of relieving what it was like to love alone during lockdown quite brutal. Also cathartic. Key certainly manages to capture the madness... and the hope.
May 3, 2021
I wish I had the words to capture just how much I loved this book. It took me over two months to read it, simply because I didn’t want it to end. Tim Key, alongside the designs of the brilliant Emily Juniper, has encapsulated the months of March - June 2020 better than any other lockdown creation has, or ever will. Irreverent, bizarre, and laugh out loud hilarious, but also heartbreaking and incredibly poignant in its painfully raw depiction of isolation and loneliness. The poems are satirical and wonderfully eccentric in equal measure, and the dialogues are sharp and witty, with Key’s distinctive voice shining through every page.
He Used Thought as a Wife is like nothing I’ve ever read before, in the most positive of ways. It’s a comedy, a tragedy, an anthology, a parody, a historical document, and a time capsule. A new all time favourite, that I can see myself returning to again and again.
He Used Thought as a Wife is like nothing I’ve ever read before, in the most positive of ways. It’s a comedy, a tragedy, an anthology, a parody, a historical document, and a time capsule. A new all time favourite, that I can see myself returning to again and again.
January 11, 2021
Can't speak highly enough of this. The whole thing is conducted like Key's leaning across the table to you in the pub, relaying all the lurid details. The dialogue is punchy, and contentious, and the mundanity and psychedelic fantasy coil together to create a historical text that's going to have Pepys absolutely on his heels. Invades your thinking. In a good way.
January 20, 2023
Not for me - I'm glad I borrow my books from the library. This was a recommendation from a tv programme and I thought it would be good to have a bit of humour amidst the crime I usually read. I'm giving it one star for the concept which was brilliant however it just felt like a nasty rant most of the time. Life's just too short for wasting on something which doesn't chime so in the end I gave up. I'm giving Bob Mortimer a go next with The Satsuma Complex he's my go to for a really good laugh and best of all he isn't unkind.
January 20, 2021
Hilarious, moving, surreal, haunting. Such a well judged reflection on lockdown 1 as we now know it. A very cathartic read, the dialogues are masterful and the poems shine like little gems. Helped me through a tough stage of the pandemic. With outstandingly beautiful design by Emily Juniper of course.
January 10, 2024
This book is an instant favorite for me, but I think it helps a lot to know a bit of Tim Key's mannerisms from some of his other work. I would recommending watching him in Taskmaster (he appears in the very first season of what will soon be your favorite television show) and No More Jockeys, a YouTube series featuring him and comedians Alex Horne and Mark Watson playing the titular game, the latter of which works even better as a supplement because that series also started in the middle of the lockdown. One could read the book and enjoy it without this extra "homework", but I think this would help you understand the tones in which Key speaks that can otherwise come off as a bit brash.
The book has a really unique structure - primarily dialogues between him and other recurring figures, formatted like a play, with poems in between. The story is about how Key deals with the lockdown as a single man, and becomes increasingly meta as the writing of the book becomes his main project of the lockdown. There are a number of conversations between him and the book's designer about what exactly this book *is* that Key almost always answers with a shrug, but you never get the sense that it is actually about nothing as he adeptly chronicles how society shifted during the beginning stages of the pandemic and the different emotions that came with this sort of isolation that so many people dealt with.
The way the book progresses, it does feel like it was authentically written on the fly during these turbulent months in 2020 but is also polished enough into a coherent story that it is a marvel that it works as well as it does. It captures a lot of the universal experiences of the lockdown (although one thing that stands out how much more seriously it was taken in the UK than it was in the States) and had me missing it in a strange way as I reflected on how much more effort people made to maintain their friendships and communities at the time.
As a final note, the book is gorgeously designed, which would be easy to overlook if it wasn't also one of the main themes of the story. Emily Juniper rightfully gets a ton of credit for not only nailing the design but for figuring this out while the work was still evolving.
The book has a really unique structure - primarily dialogues between him and other recurring figures, formatted like a play, with poems in between. The story is about how Key deals with the lockdown as a single man, and becomes increasingly meta as the writing of the book becomes his main project of the lockdown. There are a number of conversations between him and the book's designer about what exactly this book *is* that Key almost always answers with a shrug, but you never get the sense that it is actually about nothing as he adeptly chronicles how society shifted during the beginning stages of the pandemic and the different emotions that came with this sort of isolation that so many people dealt with.
The way the book progresses, it does feel like it was authentically written on the fly during these turbulent months in 2020 but is also polished enough into a coherent story that it is a marvel that it works as well as it does. It captures a lot of the universal experiences of the lockdown (although one thing that stands out how much more seriously it was taken in the UK than it was in the States) and had me missing it in a strange way as I reflected on how much more effort people made to maintain their friendships and communities at the time.
As a final note, the book is gorgeously designed, which would be easy to overlook if it wasn't also one of the main themes of the story. Emily Juniper rightfully gets a ton of credit for not only nailing the design but for figuring this out while the work was still evolving.
December 29, 2023
I did it, I did it, I finally finished the blue lockdown book!
I think I've been reading this since early 2021 and I think there's a number of reasons why it's taken me forever to finish:
1. It became the bottom book on my bedside table, first and foremost, and that's a delicate structure you can't topple. It provided the stability for the three other books piled on top.
2. I had to be in a very specific mood to read it. It paints such a vivid picture and really takes me back to certain lockdown days, and that's a weird time and I don't know if I like to be reminded of the feel of it.
3. The conversations part of the book were in very small font and it was a slog to get through at times for my poor eyes.
4. Aptly, since that first lockdown, I've struggled with physical books in general and can probably count on both hands the number of physical books I've read since. I'm going to try harder with this next year.
All this to say, I think finishing this was my biggest achievement of 2023 and Tim's voice is so so distinct that I read this as though it was narrated by him... literally the timbre and intonation and cadences of his voice. His conversations with Emily Juniper in particular were a highlight, I loved their back-and-forth. He did such a great job of depicting the weirdness of that first lockdown and at the same time, made me feel a strange sense of nostalgia for it. I'm kind of sad to have finished this, though I know the orange book now awaits me.
I think I've been reading this since early 2021 and I think there's a number of reasons why it's taken me forever to finish:
1. It became the bottom book on my bedside table, first and foremost, and that's a delicate structure you can't topple. It provided the stability for the three other books piled on top.
2. I had to be in a very specific mood to read it. It paints such a vivid picture and really takes me back to certain lockdown days, and that's a weird time and I don't know if I like to be reminded of the feel of it.
3. The conversations part of the book were in very small font and it was a slog to get through at times for my poor eyes.
4. Aptly, since that first lockdown, I've struggled with physical books in general and can probably count on both hands the number of physical books I've read since. I'm going to try harder with this next year.
All this to say, I think finishing this was my biggest achievement of 2023 and Tim's voice is so so distinct that I read this as though it was narrated by him... literally the timbre and intonation and cadences of his voice. His conversations with Emily Juniper in particular were a highlight, I loved their back-and-forth. He did such a great job of depicting the weirdness of that first lockdown and at the same time, made me feel a strange sense of nostalgia for it. I'm kind of sad to have finished this, though I know the orange book now awaits me.
January 16, 2022
An astonishing collection of conversations and poems that chart Tim Key's lockdown.
Having a knowledge of Key and his actual life/friends helps contextualise the conversations, and it is easy to work out who some of the veiled characters are - but beyond that the character that TK paints is fascinating, and the reader is left wondering to what extent the actual Tim Key resembles his self portrait. [Something that his Megadate show also left the audience wondering, I suspect].
Just as the pattern becomes predictable the book takes an interesting meta-turn that is enjoyable, and self aware.
The typesetting and layout is genuinely very attractive. This is Emily Juniper's contribution - the person whom Tim converses most with in the book. As this book seems like a continuation of the same world that TK created for Megadate, and then his Poetical Playing Cards this is appropriate.
Juniper designed the beautiful Megadate printed script, and then his playing cards (which also have conversations with her on some of them) and in this book her role as TK's foil is thrust even further into the spotlight (although how much (if any) of it is real is for the reader to guess).
Anyway, a dreamlike funny and surprisingly moving journey through Tim Key's lockdown.
Having a knowledge of Key and his actual life/friends helps contextualise the conversations, and it is easy to work out who some of the veiled characters are - but beyond that the character that TK paints is fascinating, and the reader is left wondering to what extent the actual Tim Key resembles his self portrait. [Something that his Megadate show also left the audience wondering, I suspect].
Just as the pattern becomes predictable the book takes an interesting meta-turn that is enjoyable, and self aware.
The typesetting and layout is genuinely very attractive. This is Emily Juniper's contribution - the person whom Tim converses most with in the book. As this book seems like a continuation of the same world that TK created for Megadate, and then his Poetical Playing Cards this is appropriate.
Juniper designed the beautiful Megadate printed script, and then his playing cards (which also have conversations with her on some of them) and in this book her role as TK's foil is thrust even further into the spotlight (although how much (if any) of it is real is for the reader to guess).
Anyway, a dreamlike funny and surprisingly moving journey through Tim Key's lockdown.
July 28, 2021
Wonderful words by Tim Key, maneuvered beautifully by Emily Juniper
Does 5 seem to high? Maybe. But what at first seems like just a collection of stand-alone snippets of text manages to create a quietly effective, cohesive whole.
My American experience of early COVID was slightly different--more haphazard and unstructured, more politically frustrating (Bohnson's got nothing on Drump)--but the world is small enough and the pandemic so global, that despite the geographical gulf, Key's rendering of living alone, frozen in time while the world spiraled out of control, resonated.
I didn't know who Tim Key was before Lockdown, but an early discovery of Taskmaster led me to him and No More Jockeys and shuffling through his back catalog of pre-COVID output. He became a consistent presence throughout my Lockdown Life. Reading this, as the world finally seems to be easing a bit (maybe--I see you, Delta variant), served as the perfect ellipses to the odd, overwhelming, indescribable experience of 2020(1).
Does 5 seem to high? Maybe. But what at first seems like just a collection of stand-alone snippets of text manages to create a quietly effective, cohesive whole.
My American experience of early COVID was slightly different--more haphazard and unstructured, more politically frustrating (Bohnson's got nothing on Drump)--but the world is small enough and the pandemic so global, that despite the geographical gulf, Key's rendering of living alone, frozen in time while the world spiraled out of control, resonated.
I didn't know who Tim Key was before Lockdown, but an early discovery of Taskmaster led me to him and No More Jockeys and shuffling through his back catalog of pre-COVID output. He became a consistent presence throughout my Lockdown Life. Reading this, as the world finally seems to be easing a bit (maybe--I see you, Delta variant), served as the perfect ellipses to the odd, overwhelming, indescribable experience of 2020(1).
January 14, 2022
Conversations and poems on lockdown #1 from British poet and comedian, Tim Key.
Tim Key manages to capture the weird, lonely, claustrophobic feeling of navigating lockdown in this pretty damn odd collection of writings.
It's semi-autobiographical meaning it's not entirely clear what he's invented with his own imagination (I mean, did he have a cow on his balcony? Was there even a mouse?!) but I feel like this just highlights the chaos of the pandemic and the stuff we all had to do to cope.
It weirdly made me nostalgic for certain bygone elements of lockdown 1 that are no more. Ah remember constant Zoom quizzes and when you could only get takeaway drinks from the pub?
Anyway, this was hilarious. A lot of the dialogue is written exactly how Tim Key speaks and there are plenty of laugh out loud sentences. And then the poems are just utterly unique and some of them are pure genius! Unlike anything I've read before I have to say.
Tim Key manages to capture the weird, lonely, claustrophobic feeling of navigating lockdown in this pretty damn odd collection of writings.
It's semi-autobiographical meaning it's not entirely clear what he's invented with his own imagination (I mean, did he have a cow on his balcony? Was there even a mouse?!) but I feel like this just highlights the chaos of the pandemic and the stuff we all had to do to cope.
It weirdly made me nostalgic for certain bygone elements of lockdown 1 that are no more. Ah remember constant Zoom quizzes and when you could only get takeaway drinks from the pub?
Anyway, this was hilarious. A lot of the dialogue is written exactly how Tim Key speaks and there are plenty of laugh out loud sentences. And then the poems are just utterly unique and some of them are pure genius! Unlike anything I've read before I have to say.
February 21, 2022
Nobody is better armed to capture the absurdity of that initial lockdown than Tim Key. Real and fake overlap. Tragic and comedy interleave. The mixture of two-page microplays ('conversations') taking place over Zoom or on the phone, plus Key's signature poems, are all consistently hilarious. They also however, really manage to tell an oddly compelling tale from inside perhaps the weirdest shared moment in our modern history. Key's utilising surreal humour to guide us into a refracted hall of shattered mirrors throughout this, which oddly feels entirely and exclusively like everything did during the strange cultural standstill we all found ourselves in. The design/layout work by Emily Juniper has to be highlighted too. It's so fucking classy and beautiful. No object this hilarious needs to be so aesthetic. Easily THE best art of any kind about the pandemic I've come across. I LOL'd constantly. Keen to see how the Bohnson bits age.
March 28, 2023
This book is great, one of two companion pieces to his current live show, a show that single handedly erased all my bad feelings about the Covid lockdown in the uk. This man has a beautiful mind and a great way with words, a poet but never strays into the cliche ye olde style that a non poetry fan expects to hear in poetry (misguided though that probably is) and sticks directly to modern language & slang (I’m from London, similar sort of area to Tim’s stomping ground so this makes it even more accessible/enjoyable for me personally)
Best in small bites, a coffee table pick me up if you will.
In the words of the Tennis crowd, come in Tim.
Best in small bites, a coffee table pick me up if you will.
In the words of the Tennis crowd, come in Tim.
January 22, 2024
This book completely blew me away. I haven't really read anything about lockdown due to the fact that I felt like it couldn't be done or I wouldn't be interested in it but this just feels like the perfect way to capture its essence. I love the writing so much, it is so particular to Tim Key and I really enjoy the way the character is given a very clear voice.
The book has such a great mixture of being really funny and pointing out the ridiculousness of lockdown while also being genuinely very touching and sad. I had no idea going into it how a combination of dialogues and poems would form an entire book but now that I finished it I find myself wondering why this is not more common.
The book has such a great mixture of being really funny and pointing out the ridiculousness of lockdown while also being genuinely very touching and sad. I had no idea going into it how a combination of dialogues and poems would form an entire book but now that I finished it I find myself wondering why this is not more common.
January 7, 2023
A brilliant combination of surreal humour, and poignant story telling from the dark days of lockdown 1.
These poems form a true collection, some stand alone, others form an arc of running gags. If you are a fan of Tim Key already, you will be familiar with his abrasive, and very funny, poems. What stands out about this book is the conversations, beautifully type-faced, between Key and various friends and family members he keeps in touch with from a safe distance. Each character has its own voice, each of them uniquely funny - a testament to the strength of the writing.
It is a very funny book, a tonic to the dark times of covid, a must read to look back on an unforgettable period.
What’s more, the physical book itself is beautifully made - poems and conversations laid out artistically on the page. I love my copy.
These poems form a true collection, some stand alone, others form an arc of running gags. If you are a fan of Tim Key already, you will be familiar with his abrasive, and very funny, poems. What stands out about this book is the conversations, beautifully type-faced, between Key and various friends and family members he keeps in touch with from a safe distance. Each character has its own voice, each of them uniquely funny - a testament to the strength of the writing.
It is a very funny book, a tonic to the dark times of covid, a must read to look back on an unforgettable period.
What’s more, the physical book itself is beautifully made - poems and conversations laid out artistically on the page. I love my copy.
March 7, 2021
Loved this. I so looked forward to dipping into his funny, sweet, weird and wonderful world. Although lockdown hit him hard, like many of us, his friends, thoughts and the kindness of the odd stranger got him through. So much resonated with my experience, the obsession with Amazon, the crap tv, baking, the craving for the pub. Well done Tim for making the most of a Class A shitty situation and producing a book that will completely stand the test of time. ❤️
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