Since both its national products, snow and chocolate, melt, the cuckoo clock was invented solely in order to give tourists something solid to remember it by.

At this time he also wrote for The New Yorker. Later years
In May 2006 Coren was bitten by an insect that gave him septicaemia which led to his developing necrotising fasciitis. Alan Coren (27 June 1938 – 18 October 2007) was an English humorist writer and satirist who was well known as a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff.

Alan Coren (27 June 1938 – 18 October 2007) was an English humorist writer and satirist who was well known as a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff.