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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Last Days of the Bus ClubJen Beagin|authortitle=Chris StewartBig Swiss|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=I could well have been a near-neighbour found the premise of Chris Stewartthis book totally original and addictive. NotGreta possesses the power to know the population of Hudson, New York's darkest secrets, their intimate lives, their fetishes and fears. How? Her job is to transcribe their sex therapy sessions. Sure, of coursethere's a confidentiality agreement, near his current primary occupancyas the sex coach who calls himself Om keeps reminding her, an ecological farmstead but that just beyond makes it more exciting. Like we've all probably wished for at some point in life, Greta can exist passively, placidly, as a fly on the turning off wall. That is, until Greta decides to unglue her fly-feet from the back end safety of nowhere in the most rural of corners of southern Spain, but back when he lived wall and buzz far too close to the sun. The sun in this analogy is the south-east of Englandsex coach's newest patient, being Genesiswho Greta dubs 'Big Swiss' first ever drummer, and building bridges in who, like the North Downssun, is bright, blonde and beautiful - and irresistible to Greta. The fact I learnt Suddenly, the confidentiality agreement, the latter from this book shows up several ethics of her professional position, her loyalties to Om, fly out of the features of this warm-hearted window. She'travelogue' – the fact that Stewart s in too deep.|isbn=0571378579}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is never shy about portraying family details having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and history – given a good map his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a prevailing wind one could find where he lives and descend on the farmreally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, if one wished; and it's possible that while this might be on whoever or whatever was inside is the travel shelvesthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the narrative very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is so fragmented a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it actually moves turns out that the delivery to his house is a lot more than any new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of the characters doBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908745436</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529153050|title=Summer HalfBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Angela ThirkellTim Benson

|summary=If one didn’t know of Angela Thirkell’s distinguished background as a granddaughter of Sir Edward Burne-Jones Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and daughter of a classicistmore like an adrenaline sport, it would be tempting to describe her as a kind I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of country cousin of [[:Category:P G Wodehouse|P2022''.G. Wodehouse’s]]. An unaffected and intelligent one, whose humour is less sophisticated but bubbles over with just as much glee. The middle-class world she has created, where young men come from families Sharp eyes will have noted that are comfortably wealthy rather than outrageously so, offers a counterpoint to we're not yet through the Mitford or Wodehouse worlds with their aristocratic characters who travel year: the world and mingle with more louche, bohemian onescartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184408969X</amazonuk> Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=The Bojeffries Saga1785633074|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>}} {{newreviewStaggering Hubris|author=Reverend Adam Smallbone|title=The Rev DiariesJosh Berry

|summary=Adam Smallbone wasn’t always a vicar. He used Members of Parliament like us to work for believe that the Bristol Housing Departmentcountry is run by politicians, enabling his fatherheaded by the Prime minister -in-law to tell everyone he worked the ''primus inter pares'in property'. From there, his initial calling was to a rural church in Suffolk which did nothing to prepare him for this, his current London inner city parish. Indeed, he(that's not prepared for Adoha (those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the Nigerian parishioner with 19 grandchildren and ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. We are in the bottom privileged position of God') or Colinhaving access to the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, the homeless alcoholic man who has adopted Adam and his wife Alex (Mrs Vicarage to Colin)was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. But then Alex also has a lot to get used You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to; after all, she didn't actually marry a vicarwatch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718178394</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0571365884|title=Look WhoMy Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far between. On a visit to a therapist, as an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and 's Back'My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the result - or so we are given to believe.}}{{Frontpage|author=Timur VermesJohn Boyne|title=The Echo Chamber

|summary=''Hitler Youth Ronaldo! Which way to Meet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as "one of the street?'' With these words a very misguided Nazi Fuhrer asks for his first directions in few television personalities over the Berlin age of 2011fifty without a criminal record". Mistakenly believing the lad to be He starts this book a party junior member with bit worried when his own name on mistress tells him she's carrying his football shirtchild, he also thinks for a while it but then his author wife is still 1945getting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. He's soon informed of the truthThey have three children, but still makes some unfortunate conclusions – that the street kiosks selling Turkish language newspapers who are a sign of sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, a girl who hangs around with a Sovietvirtue-beating alliance between the two countriessignalling, that people eat granola bars because keyboard warrior "wokester" who wants to save the war still leads to a bread shortageworld's homeless with out-of-date food, and that people making an ironic speech bubble with their fingers in a fit young lad doing the air is all that is left of the Hitler salutegay hustle thing. But yesAdd in a few other characters – therapists, after a long hiatus neither he nor our author is particularly concerned with explaininglawyers, ''that man'' is back random transgender types – and if he has his way he's going to be just as popular this time round…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052926</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Adam Ruck|title=The Bluffer's Guide to Golf (Bluffer's Guides)|rating=4.5|genre=Sport|summary=The fly leaf suggests that this Bluffer's Guide is the way all have two very different connections to instantly acquire all the knowledge which his life, and you need have something that suggests an almost farcical approach to pass as an expert in the ''arcane and labyrinthine'' modern world of golf. There's quite a bit there that I'd agree on - What suggests the rules (and to an unfortunate extent farcical approach even more, however, is the ''attitudes'') are arcane and they seem to take a lifetime to master, but there's a surprising amount of information tucked away inside fact this little book. What I might quibble with is whether or not you would ''pass as an expert'' (which suggests that you're something of a con man): there's enough detail here to give you a solid grounding without needing to bluffbloody funny.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909365327</amazonuk>0857526219

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Collected Works of A J FikryStephen Clarke|authortitle=Gabrielle ZevinThe Spy Who Inspired Me

|summary=A J Fikry This is not having a good timespoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. He's lost his wife to Or Ian Fleming. But it features a car crashman called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and he's not making that much moneylikes the ladies' and who works for the secret service, but in the planning side of things more than the active service. The book store he runs, stuck out on a limb Lemming finds himself put on a quiet island community, is too remote to turn mission with a profit year-roundfemale spy called Margaux, and he has just dismissed the latest publisher's rep to turn pair end up at his doorstranded in Normandy, partly because her previous counterpart, an inconsequential part of A J's life when all is said and done, had died and he didn't know about it. But his bad time is about with Margaux on a desperate mission to get a lot worse, as the one thing he owns worth unearth traitors in the most – a rare bookresistance network, more valuable than his house, his business, anything – is about and Lemming desperately trying to vanish. Which bizarrely will cause several major changes to his one-person household…keep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408704617</amazonuk>2952163855

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=William HansonAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=The BlufferKokoschka's Guide to Etiquette (Bluffer's Guides)Doll|rating=2.5|genre=LifestyleLiterary Fiction|summary=If you ask people what they fear most in Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any social situation most will tell you that of it's not knowing how to behave. They'll be fine about I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the basics20, but it's those little niceties - how to introduce yourself000s, what to ask for letters used as an aperitifnarrative form, how to address someoneand so on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, for instance which can suddenly reveal you as a parvenutoo. William Hanson gives us a quick trip through But you've seen the essentials in a book which is very readable star rating that comes with this review, and - in places - hilariously funnycan tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909937002</amazonuk>1529402697

{{newreview|title=Horrid HenryYou don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Biggest Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Best Ever Joke Book - 3-in-1Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|author=Francesca Simon Sorting the Priorities]] and Tony Ross|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=It is easy 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 see why Horrid Henry remains such an enduring retires and well-liked children’s character. for Sandra Aragona to become The adventures Wife of this cheeky, irreverent schoolboy and a cast of extreme characters including Miss Battle Axe, Former Ambassador... They have left The Demon Dinner Lady, Rabid Rebecca Career and arch-nemesis Moody Margaret are incredibly funny settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and a perfect way to encourage reluctant young readers to cultivate a love of reading. It is no surprise thentheir dog, Beagle, that the series has spawned a set no intention of three spin-off joke booksslowing down any time soon, which have now been combined to create a single volume: ''Horrid Henry’s Biggest despite being sixteen and Best Ever Joke Book''deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144401174X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08GFSK2WZ|title=Let Me Off at the Top!: My Classy Life and Other MusingsThe Karma Trap|author=Ron BurgundyLisette Boyd

|genre=HumourWomen's Fiction|summary=''This book George Jackson is a testament thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to my giant ballslook at - and single. She'' But its not had sex for eight months and she's also a stuck in the karma trap: an awful lot more. The story we've never been able to discern from either of the ''Anchorman'' films bad luck is one of surprising hardship, unsurprising hardness, being visited on her and great hairshe has a real talent for attracting drama. ItHer life's a rags-to-riches tale, as Ron Burgundy comes chaotic: she dealt with the leak from a Hicksville town in the middle of shower by putting something down at the outskirts bottom of somewhere the arse end of nowhere (a town perpetually on fire due stairs to absorb the accidents water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in the mines underneath) it and struggles against all left her, stark naked, staring at the odds – pervy postman. She only has to take her mother's dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and many of a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the evens in the shape of womenoffice.}} {{Frontpage|author=David C Mason|title=Pandora's legs – Gardener|rating=3|genre=Crime|summary= John Cranston is a gardener, although what he did before he became a gardener, he claims, is classified. That is just as well because he is about to get be caught up in a criminal / spy / terrorist plot, where only he is today, thrusting himself and his news at us nightlycan save the day.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780892241</amazonuk>0956180523

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Jester_Forever|title=Outraged of Tunbridge WellsForever After: Original Complaints from Middle Englanda dark comedy|author=Nigel CawthorneDavid Jester

|summary=It was ever thus… cyclists go too fastA long time ago, in a galaxy far away, all the Star Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, without using and the marriage seemed a hooter or lights; there are hoodlums everywhere perfectly suitable one looks. So much so – so easily did the plots and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, and no public conveniences; people pretend to have qualifications and degrees they haven't rightfully earned; buses are too busy behave with shopping women who should be indoors alreadyShakespearean stage directions – that the producers tried again, cooking for their working menfolk… Itwith [[William Shakespeare's a very clever idea Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to show exactly what is behind the Future]] no less. And that worked. But simultaneously they put a real test out. A film I can'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' tag, and as a book to be shelved alongside those with t even really remember seeing was transcribed into the wackier letters sent to original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the ''Daily Telegraph''brand new, yet oh so ancient, these selections from dressing. Here was the Royal town's press itself make a great eye-opener true challenge – would I manage to enjoy this, based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those shiny gold stars for letting the complaints and complainants of Kent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908096918</amazonuk>game away…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charlie Hill168369094X|title=BooksWilliam Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future!|author=Ian Doescher

|summary=Neurology professor Lauren Furrows witnesses A long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the sudden untimelydeath story of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two tourists entirely different genres and styles in such a bar while on holidayclever way they seemed perfectly suited. Birmingham bookshop ownerRichard Anger happens to be It was then duly repeated for all the other films in the same bar so together our single holidaymakers decide to team up as an investigatory force to be reckoned with.(Wellmain Star Wars cycle, Lauren teams up for that. Richardand clearly someone's reasons are more physical thanintellectual to begin withbuffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, the title of which became public knowledge the day before I write.) The murders seem to emanate from author GarySayles, a legend in his own mind and, apparentlyIn the hiatus, fatal to read. Elsewherehippy exhibitionists (in an over-18 way) Zeke and Pippahowever, are planning theart installation effort has been made to end all art installations and, are determined to makeGary see if the centrepiecesame shtick works with other texts, whether he realises it or not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781251630</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Facebook Diet: 50 Funny Signs of Facebook Addiction and Ways to Unplug With a Digital Detox|author=Gemini Adams|rating=3.5|genre=Humour|summary=Everywhere you look and question this book, it is a success – more or lessriff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. Does it do what it purports to – show evidence of a Facebook addiction and provide a dietary way out? Yes, more or less. Does it engage with its combination of cartoon images and captions? Yes, more or less. Does it And could we have some cult Internet pedigree to make it a hit gift book for the techie? Yes, anything more or less – it might not have been borne from a webpage somewhere online, but the Kindle version was launched several months before the paperback. Is it then a worthwhile addition to your comedy book shelves? Yes – more or less.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095546563X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Sad Monsters|author=Frank Lesser|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=If you thought you had it bad… Here is the chupacabra writing suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to the newspapers for better press – notices that don't universally mention his goat-sucking habits before his chess-playingFuture, dancing or debating record. Here is a banshee struggling with high school lifeits tales of time travel, knowing the end of everyone that comes across her path. Here is King Kongbullying, being defended in court by a lawyer with a revelation to the jury about his bipolarity and how wrong it was to get his hopes up with a Broadway show in a strange city. Did you honestly think Godzilla enjoyed the way his life ended upparent/child strife like no other?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0285642324</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Cameron1473669065|title=The BrinkmeyersQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel|author=Ruth Hogan

|summary=Hymie BrinkmeyerTilda returns to Brighton, New Yorker transplanted in to tidy away the UK is 50 years old ''on a good day''. He lives with his wife Maggie and teenage children Kevin and Karrie. Hymie thinks Kevin is great, while given that, if he gets picked up for drug possession once more, Hymie will have to admit that Kevin may have a problem. Karrie, a burgeoning poet, is also wonderful in remains of her dadmother's eyes and is about to give birth to life after her second child outside a relationshipdeath. It's her body so Whilst there, she has returns to the right... hasn't she? Everything is fine and life is great. OkParadise hotel, Kevin's plotting to kill his mother and Hymie's leather-clad secretary seems to have a crush on her boss haven for eccentrics and Hymie seems to have a lump somewhere delicately crucial but everything's just finemisfits.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957319134</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Dedicated to...: The Forgotten FriendshipsA place where people can be themselves, Hidden Stories and Lost Loves found in Second-hand Books|author=W B Gooderham|rating=4let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=I have found many strange and unusual things in second-hand bookshops. I have done one or two strange and unusual things in them Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as well, but that's a different story. Twice now I have managed to find a second-hand bookchild, completely signed and dedicated by the author, yet discarded by the recipient, and have been able to present the author with the edition at hand and get it re-dedicatedfrom this place of wonder. (If I'm not mistaken, With the discarders were a neighbouring babysitter, and a teacher help of the author's children.) I'll admit that's rarefiedQueenie Malone, howevercaring, and on the whole the scribble you find in second-hand books is from gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the person who bought it, tricky and gave it as a gift, not the person who wrote it. But even so, the dedication of the donor can be immensely fascinating uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and open to all kinds of interpretation, as these examples show perfectly cleardistant mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593072847</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1683690346|title=Wallace and Gromit - The Complete Newspaper Strips - Volume 1Con Artist|author=Nick ParkFred Van Lente

|summary=One man and his dog never had such Comic-Cons are a famous theme tune. ''One Man place of wonder and His Dog'' had a piddly little melodysanctuary for many people, but the triumphaland when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, old-fashioned he's looking for both that and charming parp of the theme tune to Wallace sanctuary with other fans and Gromit has resounded out for decades now. While Aardman moved away from the near-silent classic animations the series first gave uscreators, plus the plasticine creations mutated into incredibly popular characterschance of maybe, which included a daily strip in the nation's biggest-selling tabloidjust maybe reuniting with his ex. Here However, when his rival is the first lump of themfound dead, 312 daily doses Mike is forced to navigate every dark corner of tomfoolery, collected for everyone to enjoy. Even if you thought the franchise had travelled its course a long time ago…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782760326</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Demon Dentist|author=David Walliams|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=He ought con in order to have realised she was evil clear his name – from the start. After all, how many dentists do you know who love — yescosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, really love — rotten teeth? Brown, yellow, cracked, full of cavities, diseased, covered in plaque . . . you get the picture. And for Alfiedoing so, may just unravel a boy who loathes dentists from the bottom of his heart and whose teeth are so rotten they ought to be dark secret behind a tourist attraction, danger definitely loomslegendary industry creator. You can practically hear the background music when the two meet at a school assembly: dum-dum-DUUUUMMMMMM!!!!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007453566</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|title=Peas and Queues: The Minefield of Modern Manners|author=Sandi Toksvig|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Dear Sandi  You are my all time favourite celebrity lesbadyke, and one of the reasons I’m so very excited to be heading to Denmark this coming weekend (are all people there like you? Please say yes). For this alone, I had to get my mitts on your latest offering. I wasn’t that fussed about obtaining a book on manners previously, having always thought mine were quite ok, but I knew your take on the matter would be suitably hilarious and well worth a read. I was not wrong.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250324</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Deaf at Spiral Park|author=Kieran Devaney|rating=2.5|genre=Humour|summary=''Deaf at Spiral Park'' is a bizarre take on the philosophy of what it is to be human, attempted through the portrayal of a bear who shaves of his fur to appear as a human. The story combines philosophy with comedy using a range of stock characters including a clown and a farmer to show the world of the bear and to consider how his humanity may be more than that of the humans themselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773169</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a Time|author=Rob Temple|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=Are you compelled to apologise multiple times a day – even when you are not at fault, or even to inanimate objects? Would you subject yourself to great inconvenience rather than confront someone who is sitting in your reserved seat on a train? Have you been known to commit desperate acts in the search for your next cup of tea? If so, you may be suffering from Very British Problems.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751552593</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Reluctant Cannibals|author=Ian Flitcroft|rating=4|genre=General FictionFrontpage|summaryisbn=Over a truffled turkey at their college Christmas dinner in 1964, a group of Oxford dons decide to join their love of fine food and drink with their mutual appreciation for nineteenth-century French philosopher of food Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (author of the 1825 classic ''La Physiologie du Goût'', or ''The Physiology of Taste'') by forming a secret dining society. Together these fellows of St Jerome's College form the Shadow Faculty of Gastronomic Science, a group that will continue meeting to share new and daring culinary experiences until Oxford agrees to set up a proper gastronomic school of its own.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909593591</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Stjernstrom and Rod Bradbury (translator)|title=The Best Book in the World|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Titus Jensen may not have written many great novels for a while (if ever) but his festival readings of others' works are renowned. Why, his rendition of ''The Diseases of the Swedish Monarchs from Gustavas Vasa to Gustav V'' has been compared favourably to his offerings from ''Handbook for Volvo 245''. However, one drunken night he and romantic poet Eddie X agree that their fame on the festival circuit would be insignificant by comparison if they could write the best book in the world; a combination of all genres, appealing to all tastes and making all the best seller categories. They start work on it the next day but, rather than collaborate, each wants the lone glory. The race (or should that be battle?) to the publishing date is on!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843914808</amazonuk>}} {{newreview1473669588|title=The Complete and Utter History of the World According to Samuel Stewart Aged 9Falling Short|author=Sarah BurtonLex Coulton

|summary=Lex Coulton''Nobody knows where history ends''s debut novel is a story about mistakes, according to the cover illustration of this little bookfailures, but if anybody knows what it involves it is nine year old Samuel Stewartand relationships. He captivatingly summarises it all on these pagesThe main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, bringing us in ninety minutes from the times cavemen didn't write history down as they didn't realise it had started yetis a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, up to a work colleague and is grappling with the time increasingly eccentric behaviour of his birthher mother. That of course This relationship is a time that passed most of us complicated by, but heralded the arrival of a very individual, entertaining and amusing voicefact that Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721838</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tony Robinson OBE1683690133|title=Freedom from Bosses ForeverMy Lady's Choosing|author=Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

|summary=When we first meet Canadian businesswoman Leonora Soculitherz (don't struggle You are a lass of twenty-eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency- it's pronounced 'so cool it hurts') she's era London the race is on her way from Manchester Airport to Scarboroughfind a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey, the home of her agentyou'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, Tony Robinson OBEand fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. You get the measure of the woman straight away as she lets her irritation show about the problems When it comes to suitors though, you find in 'll have to make the First Class carriage on ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the trainmad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. (She is ''so'' right - I was once grateful to spend With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artefacts along the journey perched on a luggage rack.) Her mission is a piece of investigative journalism thatway, it's clear this isn't going to introduce her to some very superior people as she searches for information about why people in small businesses don't get the help they needbe an easy decision...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00CE5BKKI</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul MerrillStibbe_Xmas|title=Muddle Your Way Through Being a Grandparent: How to Fool People into Thinking You're a Competent Granny or GrandpaAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=34.5

|summary=It seems Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to be accepted wisdom think about the turkey for that being – once upon a grandparent is a great deal easier than being a parenttime it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. The trials Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and tribulations have largely been ignored by wrinklies grateful for contact with their children organic – but not too organic that you can go and grandchildren - visit it, and by the children who are grateful (or otherwise) for free childcare - or so Paul Merrill would have us believeget too friendly with it to want to eat it. Published for Grandparents' Day his book takes us through Christmas, though, is of course also a series time of scientifically-questionable quizzes, flow charts (thatgreat boons. It's often cash in hand for a lot of moneyplump people who can hire red suits and beards, by it was always a godsend for postmen with all the way thank- and you can guess which way it's flowing)letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, checklists and advice from celebritiesas for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, some of whom you might did they even have heard try and sell them any other time of.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909609404</amazonuk>the year?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan CoeDoescher_Will|title=Expo 58William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh|author=Ian Doescher

|summary=It's 1958 and Thomas Foley works for the British Government Central Office of Information but feels an outsider. He's ex-grammar school rather than establishment public school and his mother is Belgian (that's foreign you know) so there are definite impediments to his promotion. Thomas is therefore thrilled when chosen to oversee one of Britain's exhibits at the bigA long time ago, exciting international Expo in Belgium. So bring on the experience… and a little brush with espionage… and some beautiful women. (Sylvia is a little less thrilledgalaxy far away, being his wife and all.)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670923710</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Roll|title=Save Our Shop|rating=3.5|genre=Humour|summary=William Bridge there was a talented artist - just a little too talentedman called William Shakespeare, as it turned out because the sub-editor could see ''exactly'' who the cartoon character was meant able to be create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and that was why he ceased to be a journalist rather suddenlyrebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. He wasnYou may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for 't 'The Force Doth Awaken'exactly'' spoiled for choice when it came to his next employment and that was how he found himself helping his Uncle Albert in the village shop, but there were pluses and minuses about here at last we get the job. The biggest plus was that he met and fell actual script, complete with annoying-in love with Sally-different-ways-to-before droids anew, who was also helping Uncle Albert. The first of the minuses was that there was more than a little opposition to the match returning heroes from Sally's stepmotherelsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the redoubtable Lady Courtneyfamily til it hurts. And then there was the armed robberyif you need further encouragement, the arrival of Albertdon's brother Neil who for urgent and perfectly valid reasons needed to be known as Aunt Isabel, the American security expert and t forget his daughter whose expertise was in an entirely different area and some dodgy dealings about the future audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the shop. No real problems there, then.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1291387382</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Straight White Male|author=John Niven|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=In Kill Your Friends, John Niven delivered a scathing and hugely entertaining satire series is so popular we're on the music industry. In Straight White Male he's turned his attention to Hollywood and academia with similarly impressive results.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434022861</amazonuk>part seven – surely making this over twice as good…

{{newreview|title=Unfaithfully Yours|author=Nigel Williams|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=When Nigel Williams first really burst Move on to the best-seller list, a couple of decades ago, it was with a book set in Wimbledon that really quite tickled a younger me – and my mother. But then he produced two more in the same series, and we soon decided he was a bit of a one-trick pony, and could never be sure how much of the trilogy we'd read, or be too eager to read more. Flash forward, and Williams has certainly branched out – his setting this time is Putney. Wimbledon Common is now Putney Heath, and so on. But here he provides an epistolatory novel – and if there's one kind of novel to make me prick up my ears it is one built from letters. It is the blatant two-and-fro timing of the narrative, and the succinctness that characters are formed with, that strike me as obvious benefits of such a book – and Unfaithfully Yours has those and many more.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472106741</amazonuk>}}[[Newest LGBT Fiction Reviews]]