The Complete Yes Minister

Quotes

"Its closely observed portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power has given me hours of pure joy."
- Margaret Thatcher

“We have had diaries from other Cabinet Ministers, but none I think which have been quite so illuminating...It is a fascinating diary...It is shorter than Barbara Castles'...and although it is rather more accurate than Dick Crossman's, it is distinctly funnier”
- Lord Allen of Abbeydale (formerly Permanent Secretary at the Home Office) in The Times

“It has an entertainment and educational value which is unique. It is uproariously funny and passes the acid test of becoming more amusing at every subsequent reading...I will go so far as to claim that in the characters of Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby, Messrs Lynn and Jay have created something as immortal as PG Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and Jeeves”
- Brian Walden, The Standard

"Language is the key to the comedy here, and it often seems that these pages were written by some madcap combination of Jonathan Swift, George Bernard Shaw and the George Orwell of "Politics and English Language." Poor Jim has so much to learn. "What's the difference," he asks, "between 'under consideration?' and 'under active consideration'?" "'Under consideration,'" he is told, "means we've lost the file. 'Under active consideration' means we're trying to find it!" Similarly, Jim slowly comes to understand that "a controversial decision will merely lose you votes, a courageous decision will lose you the election." And on the matter of private information, "RESTRICTED means it was in the papers yesterday. CONFIDENTIAL means it won't be in the papers till today."
- Alan Ryan, The Washington Post

"The funniest, wittiest and truest piece of political satire to be published on either side of the Atlantic in the post-Evelyn Waugh era."
- Christopher Buckley, New York Times

"Not since the Watergate tapes has government been so clarified."
- Roy Blount, Jr.

"Yes Minister skewers the pettiness and pomposity to which all bureaucracies are prone."
- Elliot Richardson

"The book is full of wildly successful apothegms…connoisseurs of transatlantic humor will find much to laugh at."
- Los Angeles Times

"A book of sage and savage wit - its satire is on a par with the morning's headlines." - Larry Gelbart

"Sustained humor and exquisite dialogue are only a part of Yes Minister's unique appeal. It is genuine satire, a particular way of looking at man's political nature."
- Abba Eban

"Yes Minister is an amusingly literate, sharply satirical account of the exchanges of quid pro quo necessary to run any government. The book surpasses its TV origins and stands firmly on its own merits. One the bestseller lists in England for over three years, this provocative satire could well be considered a British Doonesbury."
- Publisher's Weekly

"Yes Minister, a delightful comedy of manners filled with subtle witticisms and sharp satire, is the perfect book to read in snatches."
- Orlando Sentinel

"The Complete Yes Minister is an example of British humor at its best."
- Tallahassee Democrat

"No one who has seen the BBC series "Yes Minister" will be likely to forget the skill with which Sir Humphrey sets about manipulating his own minister, the Right Hon. James Hacker… Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay succeeded in creating an outstanding comic series. That they should now have turned it into an equally entertaining book is in large part, of course, a tribute to their original material. But it also reflects the skill with which they have adapted it - recasting the stories in the form of extracts from hacker's diaries weaving in interviews and their own straight-faced explanatory comments, peppering the narrative with newspaper clippings, cartoons and official memoranda (all reproduced in facsimile and all cunning parodies of the real thing)…"The Complete Yes Minister" is guaranteed, as far as any book can be, to produce happy little explosions of laughter."
- John Gross, New York Times

"Madly comic."
- Christian Science Monitor

"Enough can't be said about The Complete Yes Minister. It is hysterically funny stuff- except when you cringe at the civil service's double-dealing tactics against elected officials. That alone is Dickensian stuff… The Complete Yes Minister will keep you interested for at least the 500 pages of paper it consumes and, more likely, for years of joyous re-reading."
- Santa Cruz Sentinel

"Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay understand government and politics. They also understand the art of satire. Their book is marvelous."
- Dallas News

"The Complete Yes Minister is hilarious…and should be required reading for every politician and/or government leader in America."
- Washington Post

"A delightfully silly satirical novel… that tells us more about how the British system - indeed all government - is run than the mot penetrating journalistic analysis ever has done."
- Chicago Tribune

"Yes Minister [is] a very funny show - clever, perceptive and well-developed characters. The book, because of its ingenious form, and because of the freedom gained in moving from acting to printed words, is even funnier."
- Columbus Dispatch

"The Complete Yes Minister is guaranteed, as far as any book can be, to produce happy little explosions of laughter."
- New York Times