\'I suffer from acute kleptomania. But when it gets bad, I take something for it.\' Ken Dodd was a legend of British comedy. He launched his career in 1954, adopted his trademark \'tickling stick\' two years later and went on to enjoy a sixty-year career as the nation\'s jester. Dodd\'s act was frenzied and zany, exploiting his saucer-eyed, buck-toothed appearance and deploying a repertoire of one-liners, whimsical and verbal inventions and liberal doses of saucy - but never dirty - jokes. Louis Barfe charts Dodd\'s life and extraordinarily long career, revealing him to be the last of the great variety acts - and a comic phenomenon who delighted his audiences across seven decades. Reviews for Happiness and Tears: \'The definitive account\' The Times. \'An industriously thorough, entertaining biography\' The Spectator. \'Sure to delight Dodd\'s many admirers\' TLS. \'Fascinatingly odd\' Daily Express. \'An absolute joy\' Choice.