Chris Sugden is a

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

humorist, best known for his portrayal of fictional folk singer Sid Kipper, the younger half of

the Kipper Family The Kipper Family was a two-man parody English folk group, played by Chris Sugden (as Sid Kipper) and Dick Nudds (as his father Henry). History The group performed as the Kipper Family throughout the 1980s and released several cult albums. Part ...

Personal life

Born in

West Runton West Runton is a village in North Norfolk, England, on the North Sea coast. Toponymy The villages name means either, Runa's farm/settlement' or 'Runi's farm/settlement'. Overview West Runton and East Runton together form the parish of Runton ...

in 1952, Sugden initially studied pharmacy at

Leicester Polytechnic De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was ta ...

before starting a PhD at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

. He is the author of ''Prewd and Prejudice'' (1994) in which the heroine Miriam Prewd spends a traumatic year of ‘Norfolk exile’. Written in his characteristic dead-pan style ''Prewd and Prejudice'' concerns itself with the Norfolk countryside, misconceptions about Norfolk and its self-deprecating folk. Sugden wrote that "the national papers seemed to think that it took the mickey out of country people, while the Norfolk people thought it ridiculed Londoners". Sugden is also the author of ''The Cromer-Sheringham Crab Wars'' and the song ''Like a Rhinestone Ploughboy''. He is the compiler of an (as yet) unpublished rhyming dictionary of Norfolk place-names for song-writing purposes. In 1996 he published ''The Ballad of Sid Kipper''. The

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk and eastern Cambridgeshire, and is published daily in Norwich, UK. Founded in 1870 as a broadsheet called the ''Eastern Counties Daily ...

columnist Keith Skipper claimed that Sugden is "probably the county’s finest ambassador who captures the true spirit of Norfolk, teaches it tricks, then sends it to run riot across the land". In 2006, Sugden presented a series of podcasts for Channel 4 radio called "The Kipper Country Code", as Sid Kipper. Chris has now retired Sid Kipper from public life and an update can be found on his website.sidkipperwebsite His website no longer exists, but is available via web archive.

Albums

Sid Kipper *Like A Rhinestone Ploughboy (1994) *Spineless (1997) *Boiled in the Bag (1997) *East Side Story (2000) *Cod Pieces (2002) *Chained Melody (2003) *In Season (2007) *Gutless (2011) The Kipper Family *Since Time Immoral (1984) *The Ever Decreasing Circle (1985) *The Crab Wars (1986) *Fresh Yesterday (1988) *Arrest These Merry Gentlemen (1989) *In the Family Way (1991) *Two-Faced (2011)

Books

*''Prewd and Prejudice'' (1994) *''Crab Wars'' (1999) *''Cod Pieces'' (2001) *''Man of Convictions'' (2003) *''The Ballad of Sid Kipper'' (1996) (out of print)

External links

Sid Kipper's website

The Kipper Family: Sid and Henry Kipper tribute site

Sid Kipper at Myspace

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sugden, Chris 1952 births Living people People from West Runton Alumni of the University of East Anglia Alumni of De Montfort University