For anyone who’s been living under a rock for the last 40 years, John Shuttleworth is the organ-playing comic character creation alter ego of Graham Fellows. Reassuringly detail-orientated when he’s focussed on the goings on in his own small piece of North Yorkshire, Shuttleworth’s stories and songs touching on the likes of Weetabix paper, Specsavers ear cleaning, and service relief station recommendations are a downright heartwarming delight.
…Takes The Biscuit’s microcosm of the character’s life is served up in easily devoured-sized chapters, songs, archive posters and several comic strips (created in collaboration with BAFTA award-winning cartoonist Kevin Baldwin), making it very much like a packet of the crumbly sweets of the book title, with “just one more” an easy refrain. It’s a timely relief from the clickbait at large, quietly painting in the pages a vividly colourful humour in his recognisable British detailed life.
Shuttleworth’s idiosyncrasies, his cadence, and the spectre of a samba rhythm from his Yamaha organ, all jump from the page to paint a complete landscape that warms the cockles and brings forth guffaws of laughter. An oasis of a cosy warm chalet bungalow cul-de-sac in a world frequently gone mad.
