Diary of a Nobody

Charles Pooter, a City clerk of no importance whatever, keeps a diary: the tradesmen are insolent, his son is a disappointment, his jokes are unappreciated, and he has just painted the bath red. The Grossmith brothers wrote it for Punch in 1888 - George was the star comedian of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas - and invented the suburban Everyman that English comedy has been rewriting ever since.