Here was someone who preferred the small folk club to the big stage, frustrating his managers and those who had promoted him.

Indeed, his early career was largely enabled by the BBC with even his EMI recording deal being secured through contacts he made at the corporation. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Beware of the Bull – The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray”, co-written by Paul with John Watterson, was included in the Daily Telegraph’s pick of the best music books of 2022.I was left wanting to know more about the man who appeared to have been well loved separate from his talents.

And, as any good biography of an artist should, it sent me straight back to the work: that deliciously lugubrious baritone with its impeccably clipped enunciation and those warm, wayward, ribald, humane, touching, irreverent and life-enhancing vignettes replete with the absurd joy of being alive. For Old Molly Metcalfe, for Leopold Alcocks, for Sister Josephine, but mostly for yourself, if your hands aren't too encumbered, gather a book or two for Jake. The diary he kept during this time offers an evocative insight into his peripatetic lifestyle with entries such as “Off to Boscombe Down. Meanwhile The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington is a tale at once charming, defiant, and edged with melancholy. That man would have swum a river on fire to get to a gig before, because he had made a promise to do it .He had audiences eating out of his hand but was genuinely puzzled why anyone would pay ‘good money’ to see him. Ernest Thackray’s run-in with a local big-wig over a traffic incident during the course of his duties led to his demotion (according to family legend), which had a financial impact on the family and seemingly forever made Jake resentful of establishment figures blinded by their self-importance -- hence Thackray`s later warning to his audience to beware the nonsense (he used a less polite word) spouted by figures whom he describes only by their honorific titles.