From family who took him to task

The husband of the woman who took Frankie Boyle to task over his jokes about people with Down’s syndrome has written a book about the condition.

Kieron Smith says he was prompted to write The Politics Of Down Syndrome in the wake of the media coverage of his wife’s run-in with Boyle last year.

Boyle targeted Sharon Smith at his show in Reading after he spotted her looking uncomfortable in the front row. Although she said she ‘knew what to expect’ from the show, she told the audience she had been upset by his jokes about Down’s syndrome, as she had a daughter, Tanzie, now six, with the condition.

The 37-year-old later wrote a blog about the awkward incident, which spread around the internet – but has since been deleted.

Now Tanzie’s father Kieron, a director of the academic charity Down Syndrome Education International and managing director of online bookstore The Book Depository, has written about society’s attitude to the condition.

He told Chortle: ‘I think it was more the questions that arose after the event itself – eg how both press and public struggled with what was right and wrong and the political context of those questions – that really pushed me to write the book. I expect humour often taps into areas society is struggling with, even subconsciously.’

The Politics of Down Syndrome will be published by Zero Books on September 30. Preorder.

Published: 24 Aug 2011