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[[Category:Humour|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roman DirgeDean Koontz|title=The Cat with a Really Big Head|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary= How many picture books are there about cats? And how many do you know that you would really NOT prefer your children to see? If the answer to the second question is 'none – yet', scratch that last word. The title piece in this collection is, by the author's own admission, his imagining of the Joseph Merrick (the 'Elephant Man') of the feline world – who struggles to sneak up behind a mouse when the shadow of his head is a total giveaway, and who can hardly even eat with dignity as bending down to his bowl would break his neck. If that's too dark or oddball for you, try the second major piece, which has a most revealing foreword – ''Dedicated to a certain girl… I hope your life is filled with wonderful accomplishments, love and all the magic you desire… - But I hope your death is slow and horrible.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782762876</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Val Hennessy|title=Not Far From DreamlandBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Ronald Tonks has reached that stage in life which I call upper middle age: you've qualified for your pension but not yet got to the free television licence barrierBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. What Ronald ''Oh, and someone has'' got is delivered a roof that leaks (there's good reason why really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home is called 'the shack'), a dog who is going bald (in patches) and money thatit's in very short supply. On possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the plus side he thing that has friendstrashed his house! The thing is, mostly platonic and usually in much Benny is the same boat as Ronaldvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. But are they downhearted? A really nice person. WellSo fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, they are occasionallya bad weather friend called Spike, but mostly they're generously optimistic and out who has been sent to make the most of what they've got, usually bought help him since Benny is clearly under attack from charity shops and jumble salesnefarious forces for being a good person. ''Not Far From Dreamland'' Spike is the story going to take care of a year (2012) in the life Benny, and will certainly take care of Ronald TonksBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, his friends and relativesHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0704373874</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Harry Harrison1529153050|title=Bill, the Galactic HeroBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=3.54|genre=Science FictionHumour|summary=Meet Bill. He's a simple farmer – wellSeeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, he I was nudged towards ''isBritain's Best Political Cartoons of 2022' taking a correspondence course in being a Technical Fertiliser Operator – but fate has something else in store. And so does the mechanised, technological, industrial military, which needs several billion grunts to fight the Chingers, in mankind's first inter-galactic war. Still, at least he gets medals just for signing up. After Sharp eyes will have noted that itwe's all downhill, and re not yet through the year: the likes of Petty Chief Officer Deathwish Drang can only make that a straight line downcartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. Really, Who can imagine what hope is therewill be to come in the 2023 edition?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320531X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Doescher1785633074|title=William Shakespeare's The Phantom of MenaceStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry
|rating=4.5
|genre=Humour
|summary= Join Members of Parliament like usto believe that the country is run by politicians, good gentles, headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for a merry reimagining those of `Star Wars Episode 1you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime' as only Shakespeare could have written it' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. 'Tis a true Shakespearean drama, filled with sword fights, soliloquies and doomed romance…all We are in glorious iambic pentameter and coupled with gorgeous illustrations. Hold on the privileged position of having access to your midichlorians: The plays the thingmemoirs of Rafe Hubris, wherein you'll catch the rise man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of Anakin!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748063</amazonuk>2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to watch.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Attaboy0571365884|title=The Book My Mess is a Bit of HugsLife: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett
|rating=4
|genre=HumourAutobiography|summary=A hug's Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a hug, OK? You either do, or you don'tchild. Some people might be a little more enthusiastic She would worry about whether the monsters under the process whilst others are more elegant in bed were comfortable: it was the execution sort of the hug, life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but basically you just get on and do it such occasions were few and then forget about it, right?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0867197978</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Christopher Fowler|title= Bryant and May – The Burning Man|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) has a new set of overlordsfar between. For reasons that were explored in the previous couple of outings they have been transferred On a visit to the City Of London Police. The Met are still the big players in the area. City of London Police only police the old citya therapist, the square mile, the financial district in other wordsas an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that has very little in the way of street crime, because no-one lives there anymore and the people who work there are, by she should write it down and large, either too rich to need to steal, or too smart to have to do so on the streets.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857522043</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg|title=The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again! |rating=3.5|genre=Humour|summary=Following the success of ''The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the RulesMy Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'', is the League of Pensioners result - or so we are back – and this time, they’re in Vegas! I haven’t read the first book but it was on my list when the opportunity arose given to review this onebelieve. The idea of the League of Pensioners marching towards a fairer world through fun and frolics was hugely appealing to me and this is a stand alone novel so I thought I would dive straight in with this one.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447274903</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Winshluss|title=In God We Trust|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=To start with, a rhetorical test. How about God and Adam playing badminton day in and day out, until one gets bored and decides to create Eve? Or the defeater of Goliath and the saviour of the Israelites being one Conan the Barbarian? Or this as a test – Jesus Himself failing to have a successful session of tequila slammers with Gabriel due to the holes through His hands? I barely need mention that in these pages God does battle with Superman, for you to have answered the test and put yourself firmly in one of two camps for this book – one very much opposed to buying it, and one very much in favour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662350</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=David Walliams and Tony RossJohn Boyne|title=The Queen's Orang-UtanEcho Chamber
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=The Queen felt trapped in the palace with all those stuffed animals which she has been given on foreign tours. There are mountains of them and every night she would dream of escaping. When her birthday drew near the family dutifully asked her what she would like as a present. The Prince was thinking of a gold, diamond encrusted stairlift whilst the Duke was considering a great big bottle of brandy. The Royal Baby had some decorated thimbles in mind, but the Queen became just a little snappish as she explained that what she really wanted was 'One's own orang-utan'. And she didn't mean a stuffed one, either.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008135134</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jack Sheffield
|title=Silent Night
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read Meet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as "one of the few television personalities over the age of fifty without a criminal record". He starts this book a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's carrying his child, but then his author wife is getting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. They have three children, who are a sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, a girl who hangs around with a couple virtue-signalling, keyboard warrior "wokester" who wants to save the world's homeless with out-of Jack Sheffield’s books about five years ago-date food, and enjoyed them very mucha fit young lad doing the gay hustle thing. They were written Add in a similar style to those popularised byfew other characters – therapists, for instancelawyers, James Herriot or [[:Category:Gervase Phinn|Gervase Phinn]]random transgender types – that all have two very different connections to his life, told mostly in and you have something that suggests an almost farcical approach to the first person, describing modern world. What suggests the author’s first couple of years as Headmaster at a small village primary school in Yorkshire. The village of Ragley is fictionalfarcical approach even more, as are most of the charactershowever, but is the incidents and situations encountered are based on the author’s experiencefact this is bloody funny.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552167045</amazonuk>0857526219
}}
 {{newreview|author=J Robert Lennon|title=See You In Paradise|rating=3|genre=Short Stories|summary=Lennon writes with a relaxed, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of life, without being in any way stereotypical. Many of the people in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed to root for (the only exception is the industrialist in the eponymous tale, who is an archetypal capitalist fat cat). There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head'', for example, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfair. For me, the most unsettling story is ''No Life'', because it portrays a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social power.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lynne Truss|title=Cat out of Hell|rating=3|genre=Horror|summary=Meet Alec Charlesworth. He's retired and decamped to an isolated coastal cottage with just his dog and loving memories of his colleague wife, now that she has died before her time. But the fusty librarian cannot rest too long before engaging in exploring some unusual computer files that were pinged across by someone at the college he worked at, just before he left. Bizarrely they show photographic and audio evidence of a talking cat called Roger, replete with Vincent Price voice – although they are also damaged by being included alongside some bad screenplay attempts about said cat. Worryingly, we soon see what at the most only a few of the characters can, that this cat is being accompanied by unusual and unexpected death – much like Alec's wife. It's only when Roger testifies to having been pushed through the ends of endurance and out the other side that we begin to doubt where the true evil in this story lies…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099585340</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jimmy Hansen and Mychailo KazybirdStephen Clarke|title=Wallace & Gromit : The Complete Newspaper Strips Collection Vol 2Spy Who Inspired Me
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
|summary=For me there are two important areas of the cover of this book where three letters are arranged in meaningful ways. The first is with the S-U-N in their obligatory red and white font. No minor paper could hold Wallace and Gromit, their adventures have to be in what is (unfortunately) the most widely read tabloid in the country. And elsewhere is C-B-E, suggesting that even the storytellers at Aardman Animations who are not household names are feted and revered as artistic experts, raising many laughs and much money for the country courtesy of their creative output. Together these short collections of letters show just how much WaG are major creations, and if the proof was needed this much longer collection of their daily comic strips provides it in spades.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782760822</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|title=Dear Committee Members
|author=Julie Schumacher
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Jason Fitger (Jay) This is a Professor of creative writing spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. But it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the ladies' and literature at a small university who works for the secret service, but in the American mid-westplanning side of things more than the active service. He is also Lemming finds himself put on a frustrated novelist mission with a colourful personal historyfemale spy called Margaux, and the pair end up stranded in Normandy, much of which bleeds into his professional lifewith Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep up with interesting results.her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007586345</amazonuk>2952163855
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Mapp Afonso Cruz and Lucia OmnibusRahul Bery (translator)|authortitle=E F BensonKokoschka's Doll|rating=32.5|genre=HumourLiterary Fiction|summary=Miss Elizabeth Mapp rules Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the town of Tilling get- she go, which is the centre why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the social lifemiddle on darker stock paper, and spends her days enjoying bridge, polite conversation and civilised painting. When Mrs Emmeline Lucas arrives a chapter whose number was in town (known to all as Lucia)the 20, Miss Mapp finds her life truly shaken up000s, letters used as the culturednarrative form, fashionable and progressive Lucia makes her home so on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too. But you've seen the townstar rating that comes with this review, and swiftly rises to the top of the ranks amongst the social scene in Tillingcan tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849908478</amazonuk>1529402697
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=Encyclopedia ParanoiacaBut Never For Lunch|author=Henry Beard and Christopher CerfSandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Popular ScienceShort Stories|summary=We're screwed. Wherever we look, whatever we think of doing, there is 'If a reason why we shouldn't woman approaching the menopause can be doing itlikened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, and people an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to back that reason up with scientific data. Take any aspect be released into the company of your daily life – what you eat, how you work, how you rest even, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness carrion crows or worse. And outside that daily sphere there are economic disasters, nuclear meltdownsmore to the point, errant AI scientists and passing comets that could turn our about to discover the real world upside down at the blink of an eyebus timetables and paying his own gas bills. Perhaps then you better read this book first – for it may well turn out to be your last…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreviewYou don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|title=Diary Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of a Mad Diva|author=Joan Rivers|rating=3Former Ambassador...5|genre=Humour|summary= They have left The late Joan Rivers was, without a doubt, a characterCareer and settled in Rome. Actress Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, comedianBeagle, writer, director, presenter, she was well known in the USA and beyond for her sharp tongue and has no holds barred persona. This was the last intention of the dozen books she publishedslowing down any time soon, her final title before her death in September 2014despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0425269027</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08GFSK2WZ|title=The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - The Nearly Definitive EditionKarma Trap|author=Douglas AdamsLisette Boyd|rating=54|genre=General Women's Fiction|summary=There are few series that have garnered such George Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and single. She's not had sex for eight months and she's stuck in the karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is being visited on her and she has a cult following as real talent for attracting drama. Her life'The Hitchhikers Guide s chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the shower by putting something down at the bottom of the stairs to absorb the Galaxy'. Whether water - then the fans have come from shower fell through the radio seriesroof whilst she was in it and left her, the (impossibly hard) computer gamestark naked, or staring at the (well intentioned but not particularly good) film, they are everywherepervy postman. Ask She only has to take her mother's dog out for a room of people what walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the meaning of life office.}} {{Frontpage|author=David C Mason|title=Pandora's Gardener|rating=3|genre=Crime|summary= John Cranston isa gardener, and you can although what he did before he became a gardener, he claims, is classified. That is just as well because he is about to be pretty sure caught up in a good few will pipe up with '42' as criminal / spy / terrorist plot, where only he can save the answerday.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0434023396</amazonuk>0956180523
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Jester_Forever|title=Quick Pint Forever After Work: a dark comedy|author=Luke LewisDavid Jester
|rating=4
|genre=Horror
|summary=Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends, Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1683691172
|title=William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls
|author=Ian Doescher
|rating=2.5
|genre=Humour
|summary=BuzzFeed is one of the world’s best A long time sucksago, in a galaxy far away, and I’m regularly directed to all the site by links from Facebook Star Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, and Twitter, in between browsing the app on my phonemarriage seemed a perfectly suitable one. According to So much so – so easily did the author bio on this bookplots and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, BuzzFeed is 'a social news and entertainment companybehave with Shakespearean stage directions – that the producers tried again, with [[William Shakespeare', which is a fancy way of describing lots of fun lists that speak s Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to the readership (20 words Future]] no less. And that have worked. But simultaneously they put a completely different meaning in Manchesterreal test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was transcribed into the original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the brand new, 30 Things all ex-gymnasts know to be trueyet oh so ancient, 40 Very British problems, yadda yadda yadda)dressing. These list work well on line when you want a quick distraction, and they’re easy Here was the true challenge – would I manage to flip throughenjoy this, looking at the attached photos or video clips. The question then, is whether or not BuzzFeed based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those shiny gold stars for letting the book will have the same appeal.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751557730</amazonuk>game away…
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graeme Simsion168369094X|title=The Rosie EffectWilliam Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future!|author=Ian Doescher|rating=4.5
|genre=Humour
|summary=Following inadvertent success with A long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the Wife Projectstory of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, Professor Don Tillman colliding two entirely different genres and his new bride Rosie have moved from Australia to New Yorkstyles in such a clever way they seemed perfectly suited. Although DonIt was then duly repeated for all the other films in the main Star Wars cycle, and clearly someone's position on buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, the autistic scale is subjective, he still operates on a daily basis title of structured procedures, lists and logicwhich became public knowledge the day before I write. Rosie can generally handle that but there are choppy waters ahead. With In the hiatus, however, the patter of tiny feet imminent logic goes out effort has been made to see if the window as she struggles same shtick works with her PhD while Don struggles other texts, and to find his place riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in the baby production processiambs. At least he has his drinking buddies And could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to support him – an aging rock drummer the Future, with its tales of time travel, bullying, and a friend whose wife has thrown him out for infidelity. What could possibly go wrongparent/child strife like no other?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718179471</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short Stories1473669065|author=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard Thomas|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summarytitle=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrong. Are you prepared to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel|author=Sammy Looker|title=Something Nasty in the SlushpileRuth Hogan|rating=45
|genre=Humour
|summary=I couldnTilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her mother't resist s life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the title - Paradise hotel, a neat play on [[Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons|Cold Comfort Farm]] haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and I'm sure let go of thoughts that you'll understand torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that I was expecting some examples Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a child, from this place of wonder. With the horrors to be found amongst the mountain help of unsolicited manuscripts which every publisher accumulates. I'll confess I was expecting to giggleQueenie Malone, even to groan - unkindcaring, I know - and I'd mentally shelved the book with the triviagregarious, or (hopefully) the humour. There is that element Tilda begins to pick apart the book, but there's also something far more useful. If you're thinking about publishing a book this should be required reading ''before'' you even go near a publishertricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472111028</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1683690346|authortitle=The QueenCon Artist|titleauthor=Still ReigningFred Van Lente
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
|summary=Anyone who frequents Twitter will know that it's Comic-Cons are a mixed blessing. It's a mine place of wonderful information wonder and supportive camaraderie. Itsanctuary for many people, and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's also - unfortunately - home to a lot of people who take great pleasure in causing pain to others. But in amongst all this are a few gems looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and one of them is [https://twitter.com/Queen_UK @Queen_UK]creators, a delightful satire on members plus the chance of the royal family, celebritiesmaybe, the political classes and the state of Her Majesty's nationjust maybe reuniting with his ex. OrHowever, ''one's nation'' as Ma'am would say. ''Still Reigning'' when his rival is her second bookfound dead, after ''Gin O'Clock'' and it's the sort Mike is forced to navigate every dark corner of parody which leaves you wondering if the writer might not be someone ''very'' close con in order to clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to the originalzombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, in doing so, may just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649132</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1473669588|title=Last Days of the Bus ClubFalling Short|author=Chris StewartLex Coulton
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
|summary=I could well have been Lex Coulton's debut novel is a near-neighbour of Chris Stewart. Not, of coursestory about mistakes, near his current primary occupancyfailures, an ecological farmstead just beyond the turning off from the back end of nowhere in the most rural of corners of southern Spainand relationships. The main protagonist, but back when he lived in the south-east of EnglandFrances Pilgrim, being Genesis' first ever drummeris a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleague and building bridges in is grappling with the North Downsincreasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. The fact I learnt the latter from this book shows up several of the features of this warm-hearted 'travelogue' – This relationship is complicated by the fact that Stewart is never shy about portraying family details and history – given a good map and a prevailing wind one could find where he lives and descend on the farm, if one wished; and that while this might be on the travel shelves, the narrative is so fragmented it actually moves a lot more than any of the characters doFrances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745436</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1683690133|title=Summer HalfMy Lady's Choosing|author=Angela ThirkellKitty Curran and Larissa Zageris
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
|summary=If one didn’t know of Angela Thirkell’s distinguished background as You are a granddaughter lass of Sir Edward Burnetwenty-Jones eight. Plucky, penniless and daughter of in Regency-era London the race is on to find a classicist, it would be tempting suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to describe her life as a kind of country cousin of [[:Category:P G Wodehouse|P.G. Wodehouse’s]]an eternal spinster. An unaffected and intelligent oneAlong your journey, whose humour is less sophisticated but bubbles over with just as much glee. The middleyou'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood -class world she has created, where young men come a fiesty noble eager to save you from families that are comfortably wealthy rather than outrageously soa life alone, offers and fired by a counterpoint rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes to suitors though, you'll have to make the Mitford ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or Wodehouse worlds with their aristocratic characters who travel the world mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and mingle with more loucheancient Egyptian artefacts along the way, bohemian onesit's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184408969X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=The Bojeffries SagaStibbe_Xmas|author=Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse|rating=5|genre=Graphic Novels|summarytitle=A very truncated history of comics will start with the idea that they should be funny strips – one jape then you're out; then that they should have more – perhaps a superhero; then that you can have so much more than just a superhero – witness the works of [[:Category:Alan Moore|Alan Moore]]. But you mustn't be too surprised to see the whole thing come around in a full cycle. Because Alan Moore has, with this volume, concluded his own funny strip japery, and whatever history or greater opinions about the canon of comix might say, it's just about his best ever book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662318</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Reverend Adam Smallbone|title=The Rev DiariesNina Stibbe
|rating=4.5
|genre=Humour
|summary=Adam Smallbone wasn’t always a vicarChristmas – the time of traditional trauma. He used You only have to work think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the Bristol Housing Departmentdownstairs loo to defrost overnight, enabling his fatherand if that failed the hair-in-law dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to tell everyone he worked make sure it'in property'. From theres suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, his initial calling was and get too friendly with it to a rural church in Suffolk which did nothing want to prepare him for thiseat it. Christmas, though, his current London inner city parishis of course also a time of great boons. Indeed, heIt's not prepared cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for Adoha (postmen with all the Nigerian parishioner with 19 grandchildren thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and 'as for the bottom makers of God') or ColinMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the homeless alcoholic who has adopted Adam and his wife Alex (Mrs Vicarage to Colin). But then Alex also has a lot to get used to; after all, she didn't actually marry a vicar.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718178394</amazonuk>year?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Look Who's BackDoescher_Will|author=Timur Vermes|rating=5|genretitle=General Fiction|summary=''Hitler Youth Ronaldo! Which way to the street?'' With these words a very misguided Nazi Fuhrer asks for his first directions in the Berlin of 2011. Mistakenly believing the lad to be a party junior member with his own name on his football shirt, he also thinks for a while it is still 1945. HeWilliam Shakespeare's soon informed of the truth, but still makes some unfortunate conclusions – that Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the street kiosks selling Turkish language newspapers are a sign of a Soviet-beating alliance between the two countries, that people eat granola bars because the war still leads to a bread shortage, and that people making an ironic speech bubble with their fingers in the air is all that is left of the Hitler salute. But yes, after a long hiatus neither he nor our author is particularly concerned with explaining, ''that man'' is back – and if he has his way he's going to be just as popular this time round…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052926</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewSeventh|author=Adam Ruck|title=The Bluffer's Guide to Golf (Bluffer's Guides)Ian Doescher
|rating=4.5
|genre=SportHumour|summary=The fly leaf suggests that this Bluffer's Guide is the way to instantly acquire all the knowledge which you need to pass as an expert A long time ago, in the ''arcane and labyrinthine'' world of golf. There's quite a bit galaxy far away, there that I'd agree on - the rules (and to an unfortunate extent the ''attitudes'') are arcane and they seem to take was a lifetime man called William Shakespeare, who was able to master, but there's create a surprising amount series of dramatic histories full of information tucked away inside this little bookmachinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. What I might quibble with is whether You may or may not you would ''pass as an expert'' (which suggests that youhave noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for 're something of a con man): there's enough detail here to give you a solid grounding without needing to bluff.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909365327</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=The Collected Works of A J Fikry|author=Gabrielle Zevin|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=A J Fikry is not having a good time. HeForce Doth Awaken's lost his wife to a car crash, and he's not making that much money. The book store he runs, stuck out on a limb on a quiet island communitybut here at last we get the actual script, is too remote complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to turn a profit year-roundbefore droids anew, and he has just dismissed the latest publisher's rep to turn up at returning heroes from elsewhere in his door, partly because her previous counterpart, an inconsequential part of A J's life when all is said and doneoeuvre, had died and he didn't know about people keeping it in the family til ithurts. But his bad time is about to get a lot worseAnd if you need further encouragement, as the one thing he owns worth the most – a rare book, more valuable than don't forget his house, his business, anything audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI here the series is about so popular we're on to vanish. Which bizarrely will cause several major changes to his one-person household…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408704617</amazonuk>part seven – surely making this over twice as good…
}}
 
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