When Grandmama Fell of the Boat: The Best of Harry Graham, Inventor of Ruthless Rhymes

When Grandmama Fell off the Boat is an anthology of the humorous verse of Harry Graham, one of the early 20th century’s wittiest writers. Published in England and America, he was credited with introducing ’sick’ verse. His obituary in The Times compared him to Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll and W. S. Gilbert, an epitaph that has stood the test of time.

Harry Graham (1874-1936) was an establishment figure who didn’t quite fit the mold. He started off conventionally enough with Eton, Sandhurst and the Guards, but the irrepressible entertainer in him kept bursting out, and by 1910 he had become a full-time writer. He was engaged to the American actress Ethel Barrymore, great aunt of Drew Barrymore, but she added him to her list of spurned suitors, among them Winston Churchill. Four years later Graham married Dorothy Villiers.