English humourous
essayist and
author. Born in
1939, Coren was educated at
Oxford,
Yale and
Berkley before embarking on a career in
journalism. He started out as deputy editor of
Punch (and later editor from
1978 to
1987) and as a columnist and TV critic in the
Daily Mail, while concurrently producing a steady trickle of publications, ranging from children's books (the
Arthur series) to collections of essays and articles.
Coren is currently a balding, middle-aged man who has been tragically aflicted with the belief that he is much wittier than he actually is. His low fee and articulate delivery have led him to become a regular on such shows as The News Quiz and Call My Bluff (the 'new' version hosted by Bob Holness). On The News Quiz his contributions have a knack of descending into xenophobic slurs against the Germans, but then the Daily Mail does that to people.
Alan's son, Giles Coren, seems to be following in his father's footsteps, doing a stint on The Times Diary column before moving on to being their restaurant critic. His daughter, Victoria Coren, writes for The Grauniad and has made (that is to say directed, with Charlie Skelton) a pornographic film, for the purposes of having something to write a column and book about. (And no, neither of them are funny either.)