The Complete Yes Minister

This and the Complete Yes Prime Minister are awesome examples of how great writing transcends medium. You might think, "There's no way they can duplicate the wittiness, speed and thought process of the TV show in a book"--but they do! And at times it's even BETTER than the show in writing. The only very minor gripe I have is the constant intercession by the authors with "1 - in conversation with the editors" footnotes. Most of the footnotes are helpful; these are unnecessary.

Many a true word spoken in jest!

I have finished reading this wonderful book for the umpteenth time.It never grows old.The stories,the characters,the language expressed are all of the highest order.It's based on the original BBC scripts but fleshed out appropriately.And it's funny.Very funny.And an eyeopener to how things in British government were really done(still?)For anyone who loved the original show or for people who love an intelligent,witty read.

Simply brilliant!

One word sums it up ...... Hilarious. If you watched the TV series then this book is a must.

Most probably the best TV series ever, and the book succeeds in preserving the quality. It is not just a transcript of the TV scenes but a creation of its own.

Clever, hilarious, supremely eloquent...just a masterpiece. The book is a must have as an accompaniment to the TV series!!

Priceless. British humour at its best

This gives you everything you remember from "Yes, Minister": the hapless, out of his depth but decent Jim Hacker, the smug , elitist, bureaucratic genius and torturer of English syntax Sir Humphrey and then Bernard of the pedantic observationWe are given all we recall from the sit-com with added thoughts of Hacker and Jay and ,Lynn acting as Editors of the Diaries this is presented as. This is a great concept and adds a lot to the book. All in all a brilliant purchase

This e-book has an active table of contents, and there are footnotes as well as some photos and scans of documents and memos included. This book makes a great accompaniment to the TV series, which you can buy the DVD of on this site.Thus here we are welcomed to the world of James ‘Jim’ Hacker who has just been appointed the Minister of the Department of Administrative Affairs. This is based on Jim Hacker’s diaries which have been condensed by the compilers as they were too wordy, and there have been things added, such as memos and discussions between others that Hacker was not privy to.Most people know what the Civil Service is to a degree but don’t realise that as such it is not a political body, after all governments come and go, and is under the Crown, rather than any political persuasion. We elect a new government who appoints ministers to each department who then are supported by the bureaucracy, and this is made up of the civil service, who have been in position for some time, and should know what they are doing.Admittedly since Margaret Thatcher took office, and then with successive governments ever since there has been certain actions and curtailments on the civil service, and this book does show why with its comedy and satire, and to a certain extent the characters are caricatures which adds to the comedy. We have the thoughts here of Jim Hacker and we see how his two closest advisors, Bernard Woolley his Principal Private Secretary and Sir Humphrey Appleby, his Permanent Secretary react.There was obviously a lot of research that went into the TV series and this still shows through in this book as we see not only Jim Hacker the politician, but also the civil servants wheeling and dealing and spinning and diving for cover when things get a bit uncomfortable.Influencing programmes to this day obviously The Thick of It springs to mind, and this book makes for a very funny laugh out loud read. Here we learn some of the doublespeak that is still to this day used, and we have to wonder how the country ever had any diplomatic relations with other countries at all as civil servants rather like the ministers, did not really have a clue or had ever been taught about the subjects they were in charge of. Such things come to light here with cutting wit, as we see not only the civil service battling against the newly appointed government, but also both sides having to come together if it means things have gone a bit pear shaped.I was still at school when the series started and I loved it then as I do now, and as I have already mentioned this book makes an ideal accompaniment that for those younger people coming to this for the first time should love just as much as us older generations.

This is a classic and I absolutely have to have it in my library. Unfortunately this kindle edition is appalling. There are parts of the text presented as pictures, which cannot be enlarged, making them completely unreadable. I know the book almost by heart, but I don't think that it is okay to be unable to read some of the most significant parts of the story, presented as letters, memos and notes. Very disappointing.

Superb collection of Yes Minister for the Kindle (I wish they would release Yes Prime Minister on Kindle at the time of writing it isn't available and if you want to carry on the series you don't have a Kindle option at the moment).The one thing letting it down is the size/quality of the printed reproductions of letters/memos throughout the book, they are in my opinion too small even when you zoom into them individually and are often hard to read. Annoyingly they sometimes have the content of the letter/memo reproduced seperately to read whilst othertimes they don't (the print version was similar but the size wasn't an issue with that).I've also not been able to use the inbook references throughout the chapters so your left to manually flick forward and backward (this could just be me being a doofus though!).Great stories let down by a lacklustre Kindle edition sadly.

Sir Humphrey Appleby, Bernard Woolley and Jim Hacker brilliantly played by Nigel Hawthorne, Derek Fowlds and Paul Eddington were so real that although its decades old you can still see the characters in your head as they try to out do one another. Very very funny and how Nigel Hawthorne remembered those lines i will never know. The book follows Hacker from day one and sees a gradual understanding as to what his ministerial role is while trying to outwit the civil service who dont want him to have a role at all. The "Published" memos, interviews and diary entries also add to the realism. I think that this is a timeless comedy and the writing duo of Jonanthan Lynn and Anthony Jay deserve plaudits for they scripts and how the main characters are portrayed.