Alan Coren

Alan Coren married Anne Kasriel, a doctor, in 1963. They had two children namely, Giles and Victoria. Both of them have become journalists in their later life.

He passed away as a result of cancer at the age of 69.

Born in Southgate, North London, Coren was the son of a plumber and a hairdresser. After attending East Barnet Grammar School, he studied at Wadham College at the University of Oxford where he got a first in English in 1960.

After completing his Master’s degree, he went to the US and the Universities of Minnesota, Yale in Connecticut and the University of California, Barkley as part of a Commonwealth fellowship program from 1961 to 1963.

When he was doing his doctorate in modern American literature, he started writing humorous articles for Punch, a British weekly magazine of humor and satire. At the same time, he also wrote for The New Yorker.

In 1966, he worked as literary editor of Punch and in 1969 took the responsibility of deputy editor of this magazine. Here, under the comic guise of Idi Amin, he used to write articles which gained much popularity at that time.

From 1971 to 1978, he created a television review column for the Times. From 1972 to 1976, he used to write humor columns for Daily Mail. From 1973 to 1976, he served as the rector of St Andrew’s University.

From 1976 to 1983, he authored a number of Arthur series of Children's Books. In 1977, he received the invitation of becoming one of the regular panelists on BBC Radio 4’s satirical quiz program The News Quiz.

From 1978 to 1987, he served as the editor of Punch. It used to publish his articles every week as its first piece. He was not in favor of dark humor although it gained wide recognition through other publications at that era.

From 1984, Coren worked as a television critic for the Mail on Sunday. Next, he became the editor of The Listener and served till 1989. Simultaneously, he worked for the BBC’s weekly from 1988 to 1989. Besides these, he was a regular writer of the Times from 1988.

In 1974, he authored The Collected Bulletins of Idi Amin. It was the collection of his articles written for Punch to ridicule the former Ugandan dictator. The book was rejected by publishers in the US on racial ground.