Advice Column - Related Fiction

Related Fiction

Inevitably, the "Agony Aunt" has become the subject of fiction, often satirically or farcically. Versions of the form include:

• An agony aunt whose own personal problems and issues are more bizarre than those of her correspondents. A notable example is the British TV sitcom Agony created by Anna Raeburn, starring Maureen Lipman as the agony aunt with an overbearing mother, an unreliable husband, neurotic gay neighbours, and a career in media surrounded by self-promoting bizarros. Anna Raeburn herself works as an agony aunt on radio call-in shows, much as the main character of the sitcom does.
• Mrs. Mills deliberately gives terrible advice to her clients, and is a satire of an agony aunt.
• Another classic example of the agony aunt in fiction appears in Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West.
• In Evelyn Waugh's novel The Loved One, a Mr. Slump dispenses advice (on one occasion, it is lethal) under the name Guru Brahmin.
• As of 2012, Chris Ayres cowrites "Ask Dr. Ozzy" with Ozzy Osbourne for The Sunday Times Magazine and Rolling Stone. The column features readers asking Ozzy personal and health questions, often resulting in a humorous response that includes the fact that Mr. Osbourne is not a real doctor and that the reader should consult a legitimate doctor instead.