Satire and politics: the interplay of heritage and practice

Satire and Politics is the first in a new series of "Palgrave Studies in Comedy", and is a welcome addition to the field of humour studies, both in that capacity and also as a standalone book. The volume had its origins in an Australasian Humour Studies Network panel of 2015, and while its contents therefore reflect serious scholarship and academic engagement with its subject matter, it is also a very readable work. Both the editor–Jessica Milner Davis–and the individual authors (ten in all, with many contributing to multiple chapters) are to be congratulated on this score. It is refreshing to read a collection that eschews jargon and theory, and yet still manages to convey complex concepts and analyses in attractive prose.