Joe Queenan

The acerbic writer and critic Joe Queenan has essentially made a career out of being extremely unpleasant about people in print with the result that he is one of America's finest cultural commentators. Beginning his career working for financial publications he landed work for Movieline magazine where his acerbic wit won him much praise and led to several successful books such as 'If you're talking to me your career must be in trouble' and 'Confessions of a cineplex heckler'. Less successful was his book 'The Unkindest Cut' in which he attempted to follow in the footsteps of Robert Rodrigeuz's _Mariachi, El(1992)_ and make a movie on his credit card. The resulting abysmal effort was Twelve Steps to Death (1995) which makes for appalling celluloid but a very funny book. His other works include 'Imperial Caddy: The Rise of Dan Quayle in America and the Decline and Fall of Practically Everything Else' and 'True Believers: the tragic inner life of sports fans'. He also writes for the Guardian and the New York Times.