If Pinter's plays transmute realism into poetic fantasy, the work of Norman Frederick Simpson … is philosophical fantasy strongly based on reality…. Although Simpson's work is extravagant fantasy in the vein of Lewis Carroll, and is compared by the author himself to a regimental sergeant-major reciting 'Jabberwocky' over and over again through a megaphone, it is nevertheless firmly based in the English class system. If Pinter's world is one of tramps and junior clerks, Simpson's is unmistakably suburban. (p. 258)

Nonsense and satire [are] mingled with parody [in A Resounding Tinkle], but the serious philosophical intent is again and again brought into the open…. [Two] comedians learnedly discuss Bergson's theory of laughter ('We laugh every time a person gives us the impression of being a thing'), and Mr Paradock promptly puts the theory to the test by having himself plugged into the electricity supply and converting himself into a mechanical...