Michael Green (humorist)

Michael Green (born 2 January 1927 in Leicester, England) is a British journalist and author of humorous books. He is best known for The Art of Coarse Rugby, The Art of Coarse Acting and other books with similar titles.

Green began his career as a junior journalist on the Leicester Mercury. He later joined the Northampton Chronicle and Echo, where he worked on both the sporting and theatrical fronts, then the Birmingham Gazette as a sub-editor. Later he was a sports writer on The Observer and a contributor to the Sunday Times, among others.

The Art of Coarse Rugby, which became a best-seller in 1960, and The Art of Coarse Acting were both products of his Midlands days, when he was involved with amateur rugby and dramatics. Green was commissioned to write The Art of Coarse Rugby by Hutchinson, to go with a republication of The Art of Coarse Cricket by Spike Hughes, who had intended the title as a play on Coarse Fishing. Green describes a coarse actor as "one who can remember his lines, but not the order in which they come. One who performs ... amid lethal props..." and goes on: "The Coarse Actor's aim is to upstage the rest of the cast. His hope is to be dead by Act Two so that he can spend the rest of his time in the bar. His problems? Everyone else connected with the production." In similar vein, the coarse rugby player is described as differentiated from the rugger player in that he does not enjoy playing, but instead plays for any one of a number of other reasons, such as to get away from his wife, or because he dare not admit he is too old. Other books in the series followed, and The Art of Coarse Moving subsequently became the 1977 BBC TV series A Roof over My Head with Brian Rix.

His book about journalism, Don't Print My Name Upside Down, was based largely on his Northampton days. Stanley Worker, the paper's long-serving chief sub-editor, was so proud of references to him in the book that he kept a copy in his desk drawer to peruse with quiet satisfaction during rare lulls in his working day. Green also published two autobiographical books: The Boy Who Shot Down an Airship, which includes reminiscences about his National Service experiences, and Nobody Hurt in Small Earthquake, about his postwar journalist and sub-editor experiences in Northampton, Birmingham and London.

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