John O’Farrell (born 27 March 1962) is a British author, comedy scriptwriter, and political campaigner. Previously a lead writer for such shows as Spitting Image and Have I Got News for You, he is now best known as a comic author for such books such as The Man Who Forgot His Wife and An Utterly Impartial History of Britain. He is one of a small number of British writers to have achieved best-seller status with both fiction and nonfiction. His books have been translated into around thirty languages and adapted for radio and television.
O’Farrell co-wrote the musical Something Rotten! which opened on Broadway in April 2015 and co-wrote a Broadway musical of Mrs. Doubtfire which opened on Broadway in December 2021 and in London’s West End in May 2023. He wrote the musical Just For One Day based on the story of the 1985 benefit concert Live Aid which had its world premiere at The Old Vic in London on 13 February 2024.
Books in order of publication:
Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter, 1979–1997 (1998)
The Best a Man Can Get (2000)
Global Village Idiot (2001)
This Is Your Life (2002)
I Blame the Scapegoats (2003)
May Contain Nuts (2 May 2005) (2005, Doubleday, )
I Have a Bream (February 2007)
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain — Or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots In Charge (22 October 2007)
An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain: or Sixty Years of Making the Same Stupid Mistakes as Always (22 October 2009)
The Man Who Forgot His Wife (16 March 2012) (2012, Doubleday)
A History of Capitalism According to the Jubilee Line (2013, Penguin, )
There’s Only Two David Beckhams (2015, Black Swan)
Things Can Only Get Worse?: Twenty Confusing Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter (2017)
Family Politics (2024, Doubleday)
Oak Lawn Library Friends 