Linda Smith book

Santa finally arrived today with "The Very Best Of Linda Smith" in his sack.

It's an anthology of much of Linda's work, transcribed from the original by her partner. He is now working on a biography of her.

There isn't much from her JAM work - just one para of her going the full 60. But there are two lovely pieces written by Nicholas and Claire Jones about her work on JAM. And there is a rare photo of a JAM panel - the panel from her first show which included Tony Hawks, Graham Norton and Derek Nimmo, in his last recording. The pic is a classic - Nicholas hamming it up, Derek and Tony smirking, Graham grinning, Linda looking coy as she often did.

There are also other articles by other JAMsters including Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Chris Neill, Jeremy Hardy, Jo Brand and Sandi Toskvig.

But the bulk of the book is Linda's comedy and how good it reads. She was such a clever comedian and satirist, a lover of words. A tremendously funny woman. The book is just unputdownable - far better than I expected.

What a loss Linda is - not just for JAM, but to Britain's comedy community.