Alan Coren was born in 1938 in Southgate, North London, the only chid of a plumber and a hairdresser. From East Barnet Grammar School, he went to Wadham College, Oxford on a scholarship, and then to Yale and Berkeley to study modern American literature.
He abandoned plans for an academic career when Punch magazine, to which he had been contributing articles from America, offered him a job on its staff. He became deputy editor in 1969and editor in 1978. From 1988 he wrote a hugely popular column for The Times, which continued until the end of his life. He was also a regular panellist on Radio 4's The News Quiz for 20 years, and for 10 years was a team captain on 'Call My Bluff'.
Coren was a proud resident of the north-west London suburb of Cricklewood for a quarter of a century, and was a devoted husband to Dr Anne Coren for 44 years. He died in 2007.
Books by Alan Coren
