Changes

|author=Roman DirgeIan Doescher|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 authorWilliam Shakespeare's own admission, his imagining of the Joseph Merrick (Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part 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 DreamlandSeventh

|summary=Meet Bill. He's A long time ago, in a simple farmer – wellgalaxy far away, he ''is'' taking there was a correspondence course in being man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a Technical Fertiliser Operator – but fate has something else in storeseries of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. And so does You may or may not have noticed the mechanisedcinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', technological, industrial military, which needs several billion grunts to fight but here at last we get the Chingersactual script, complete with annoying-in mankind's first inter-galactic war. Stilldifferent-ways-to-before droids anew, at least he gets medals just for signing up. After that it's all downhillreturning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the likes of Petty Chief Officer Deathwish Drang can only make that a straight line downfamily til it hurts. ReallyAnd if you need further encouragement, what hope don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is there?so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320531X159474985X</amazonuk>

|author=Ian DoescherJames Goss and Russell T Davies|title=William Shakespeare's The Phantom Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of MenaceTime Lord Verse (Dr Who)

|genre=HumourChildren's Rhymes and Verse |summary= Join usConsider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, good gentleswere he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a merry reimagining Time Lord and that of `Star Wars Episode 1' as only Shakespeare could some of his friends and enemies. As luck would have written it, he has the space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you'Tis re working on a true Shakespearean dramashorter timescale, filled with sword fightsa shorter lifespan, soliloquies and doomed romance…all in glorious iambic pentameter and coupled with gorgeous illustrations. Hold on to your midichlorians: The plays the thingthinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, wherein you'll catch well my advice is pretty much the rise of Anakin!same.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>15947480631785942719</amazonuk>

|author=AttaboyAnnie Ingram|title=The Book of HugsConversations with Kammie

|genre=HumourPets|summary=A hug's It was something of a hug, OK? relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and her cocker spaniel Kammie. You either dosee, Annie knows something which has been self-evident to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans and not just on a level of ''food!'', ''walk!'' or you don't'play!''. Some people might be a little more enthusiastic about the process whilst others are more elegant in the execution of the hugYou do require extensive training to become fluent, but basically most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to teach you just get on and all you have to do it is listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and then forget about it, right?the pair have allowed us to share some of their conversations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08671979781785451995</amazonuk>

|author= Christopher FowlerCharles Harris|title= Bryant and May – The Burning ManBreaking of Liam Glass|rating=43

|summary= The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) has a new set of overlordsA flawed but reasonably entertaining swipe at modern media. For reasons that were explored in the previous couple of outings they have been transferred There's plenty here to the City Of London Police. The Met are still the big players in the area. City of London Police only police the old city, the square mile, the financial district in other words, that has very little in the way of street crimelike, because no-one lives there anymore and the people who work there are, by plenty not to. But good structure and large, either too rich to need to steal, or too smart to have scramjet pace keep this one flying to do so on the streetsfinal page.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08575220431908943823</amazonuk>

|author=Catharina Ingelman-SundbergFred Van Lente|title=The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again! Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery|rating=3.54|genre=Humour|summary=Following Nine comedians are invited to a remote Caribbean island under the success guise of working with Dustin Walker, a comedic legend. Each fits neatly into one of ''The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules''archetypal comic stereotypes: Steve, the League of Pensioners are back – and this timewashed-up has-been who has fallen far from his early days; Zoe, they’re in Vegas! I haven’t read the first book but it was rising female star with a new stand-up special coming soon; Dante, who went from being a kid on my list when the opportunity arose streets to review this one. The idea of the League of Pensioners marching towards hardest working road comic in the business; Oliver, the child-like prop comic who can't get any respect from his peers; Janet, the insult comic who is past her prime; TJ, the nightly variety show host with a fairer world through fun reputation for harassing his female colleagues and frolics was hugely appealing to me guest acts; Ruby, the ultra-feminist YouTuber and Blogger with a chip on her shoulder; and this William, whose redneck character ''Billy the Contractor'' is a stand alone novel so I thought I would dive straight in with this onefar cry from his real personality as a posh millionaire.Of course, all nine agree because ''when God almighty walks down on a beam of light and asks for your help, what the hell else are you going to say?''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14472749031594749744</amazonuk>

|author=WinshlussS Lynn Scott|title=In God We TrustElizabeth, William... and Me

|genre=Graphic NovelsHumour|summary=To start Ally is an ordinary woman withteenage children, a rhetorical testhusband and a job. How about God and Adam playing badminton day in and Then comes the day when ordinariness flies 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? window. Or this as It's not a test – Jesus Himself failing to have a successful session of tequila slammers with Gabriel due to coincidence that it's the holes through His hands? same day she finds Queen Elizabeth I barely need mention that in these pages God does battle with Superman, for you to have answered the test pantry and put yourself firmly the Bard of Avon in one of two camps for this book – one very much opposed her bath. What's she going to buying itdo? Well, Elizabeth and one very much in favour.Will have their own ideas about that!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08616623501788037006</amazonuk>

|author=David Walliams and Tony RossE G Rodford|title=The QueenSurgeon's Orang-UtanCase: George Kocharyan Mystery 2|rating=54|genre=For SharingCrime |summary=The Queen felt trapped in In the palace with all those stuffed animals which she second instalment of this series, Private Investigator George Kocharyan has been given on foreign tourshired by a well-known local man to track down some missing valuables. 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 Bill Galbraith, a present. The Prince was thinking of world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts a goldpopular medical television programme, diamond encrusted stairlift whilst the Duke was considering a great big bottle of brandy. The Royal Baby has had some decorated thimbles his briefcase stolen by his live-in minddomestic servant, Aurora. According to Galbraith, but this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the Queen became just hospital. George agrees to look into the theft, assuming it will be a relatively easy and straightforward case – little snappish as she explained that what she really wanted was 'Onedoes he know, he's own orang-utan'. And she didn't mean about to enter a stuffed one, eitherworld of deceit and dysfunction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008135134178565005X</amazonuk>

|author=Jack SheffieldToni Jordan|title=Silent NightOur Tiny, Useless Hearts|rating=3.5|genre=General Women's Fiction|summary=I read a couple of Jack Sheffield’s books about five As predicted by Caroline and Janice's mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding day, their marriage is over, albeit 15 years ago, and enjoyed them very muchtwo daughters further along than predicted. They were written in Indeed, this is definitely not a similar style good weekend for Janice to those popularised by, for instance, James Herriot or [[:Category:Gervase Phinn|Gervase Phinn]], told mostly in be babysitting at Caroline's house. There's the first person, describing split and the author’s first couple awkwardness of years as Headmaster at the girls' schoolteacher being the other woman for a small village primary school in Yorkshirestart. Then there's that mistaken identity moment involving the neighbours. The village At least Janice is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec. She still dreams of Ragley is fictionalhim, as are most of the charactersyes, but it's so over! Just as well really… guess who's at the incidents and situations encountered are based on the author’s experience.door?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>05521670451760293814</amazonuk>

|author=J Robert LennonColin Taylor|title=See You In ParadiseThe Life of a Scilly Sergeant|rating=34.5|genre=Short StoriesTravel|summary=Lennon writes with Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – the author provides a relaxedhandy guide to the etiquette of their name, easy style their nature and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of lifelocation, without being in any way stereotypicaletc. Many ) For our more distant readers, they're several chunks of granite rock out in the people in these stories are dealing Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with normal frustrationsjust 2, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not to make them individuals that you200 permanent residents. They're obviously supposed to root for (big on tourism, and big on growing flowers in the only exception is tropical climate the industrialist in Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the eponymous tale, who weather is an archetypal capitalist fat cat)bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head' They're so wee, and so idyllic-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for example, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfairpolice presence. For me, the most unsettling story But there is ''No Life'', because it portrays a decent couple – at least two working at the mercy any one time. And one of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work herein recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, just ordinary characters at which has brought to life all the mercy whimsical comedy of social powerhis work.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358178475515X</amazonuk>

|author=Lynne TrussJosie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees|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 Twas the true evil in this story lies…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099585340</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jimmy Hansen and Mychailo Kazybird|title=Wallace & Gromit Fight Before Christmas: The Complete Newspaper Strips Collection Vol 2A Parody|rating=43.5

|summary=For me there are two important areas of the cover of this book where three letters are It's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged in meaningful ways. The first is with the S-U-N in their obligatory red and white fonteverything. No minor paper could hold Wallace and Gromit, their adventures have All she now has to be in what do is (unfortunately) await the most widely read tabloid in arrival of the country. And elsewhere is C-B-E, suggesting that even the storytellers at Aardman Animations who are not household names are feted relatives and revered as artistic experts, raising many laughs and much money for the country courtesy of their creative outputfood shopping delivery. Together these short collections of letters show just how much WaG are major creations, and if Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have the proof was needed this much longer collection of their daily comic strips provides it in spadespotential to ruin everything.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17827608221472125118</amazonuk>

|title=Dear Committee Members|author=Julie SchumacherRyan North|ratingtitle=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jason Fitger (Jay) is a Professor of creative writing Romeo and literature at a small university in the American mid-west. He is also a frustrated novelist with a colourful personal history, much of which bleeds into his professional life, with interesting results.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007586345</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Mapp and Lucia Omnibus|author=E F Bensonor Juliet

|summary=Miss Elizabeth Mapp rules For all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted and prescribed, read on. In these pages you too will see that Romeo had lots of options en route to hitting the town of Tilling - bottle. Likewise, she is the centre could have turned away from her predestined path at no end of the social lifejunctures. And to what result? Well, happy marriage and spends her days enjoying bridgea kid called Ben, polite conversation because the leads have just banged people's heads together and civilised painting. When Mrs Emmeline Lucas arrives in town stopped the quarrelling, or Death by Tybalt (known to all as Luciahim), Miss Mapp finds her or a long life truly shaken uprunning an establishment curing murderous women, such as the cultured, fashionable and progressive Lucia makes a Lady M (her home in the town, and swiftly rises to the top of the ranks amongst the social scene in Tilling).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>18499084780356508536</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Encyclopedia ParanoiacaGervase Phinn|authortitle=Henry Beard and Christopher CerfThe Virgin Mary's Got Nits|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceHumour|summary=We're screwed. Wherever Christmas in our house is the time we look, whatever we think of doing, there is tend to get on a reason why we shouldn't be doing it, plane and people head to back either sun or snow, anywhere that reason up with scientific data. Take any aspect of your daily life – what you eatis far, how you workfar away from the madness at home, how you rest evenlast minute dashes to the shops on Christmas Eve, what you touch – all have problems and food cupboard stockpiles that could provoke would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, nor a serious illness or worsemere 36 hours. And outside that daily sphere there are economic disastersBut I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, nuclear meltdownsback when it was magical, errant AI scientists and passing comets that could turn our world upside down at back when you knew exactly what the blink of an eyeseason would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. Perhaps then you better read this This book first – for is an anthology of those moments, and it may well turn out took me right back to be your last…the wonder of Christmas as a child.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07156492131444779400</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Diary of a Mad DivaKieran Crowley|authortitle=Joan RiversShoot|rating=3.54|genre=HumourCrime|summary=I make something of a habit of being late to discover good writers, in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with us. The late Joan Rivers wasresult is that what is billed as ''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' with all the optimism of there being more to come has the poignancy of being, without if not the last of a doubtshort line, certainly one of a characterfew. F.X. ActressShepherd – he doesn't like his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" is, comediantechnically, writer, director, presenter, she was well known in the USA a columnist. He's been sacked by one New York newspaper and beyond is writing a weekly column for her sharp tongue and no holds barred personaanother. This was the last of I don't know much about journalism, but I'm guessing one column a week doesn't pay much as a rule…which explains why Shepherd's soap-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read the dozen books she publishedbook, her final title before her death you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in September 2014some genuine journalism as well: front page, seat of your pants stuff.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>04252690271783296518</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - The Nearly Definitive EditionGray Jolliffe|authortitle=Douglas AdamsThe First Ever Christmas: And Who to Blame

|genre=General FictionHumour|summary=There are few series that have garnered such If I tell you a cult following as secret, will you promise not to tell anyone? Well, I really don't like Christmas: it'The Hitchhikers Guide s my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down to the Galaxyday itself, I look forward to that point when I can say that it's all over for another year. Whether the fans have come from the radio series It's all too commercialised for me, with a coating of faux religion. I've never found it in the (impossibly hard) computer gameleast funny - that is, or the (well intentioned but not particularly good) film, they are everywhereuntil I found Gray Jolliffe's ''The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to Blame''. Ask a room of people what the meaning of life isAmazingly, and you can be pretty sure a good few will pipe up with I'42d never encountered Gray Jolliffe either, but I' m a convert to his skills as a cartoonist (if not to the answeridea of Christmas) after reading this collection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>04340233961445663503</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Quick Pint After WorkJonathan Pugh|authortitle=Luke LewisPugh's New Year's Resolutions|rating=4.5

|summary=BuzzFeed is If there's one of the world’s best time sucksthing that's for certain, and I’m regularly directed to it's that the site by links from Facebook and Twitterworld is changing. We're dating online, we're communicating in between browsing the app on my phone. According to the author bio on this bookways that make email seem redundant, BuzzFeed is and when we're shopping we just tell a social news website where and entertainment company'when it can be delivered, which and how much leeway they have to swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring us. But those changes are also supposed to be affecting us – we're supposed to use a fancy way of describing lots of fun lists that speak smart watch to the readership (20 words that tell us if we're moving or not, we have a completely different meaning in Manchester, 30 Things all ex-gymnasts know to be true, 40 Very British problems, yadda yadda yadda). These list work well on line when you want a quick distractionkeep up with the latest fads, and they’re easy we're supposed to flip through, looking at prick our ears up and take note when the attached photos or video clips. The question then, is whether or not BuzzFeed the book will have the same appealproverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07515577301780722885</amazonuk>

|author=Graeme SimsionLuke Rhinehart|title=Invasion|rating= 4.5|genre= Humour |summary=Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And they've come to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one day, and he and his family quickly come to love the playful alien. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networks, stealing millions from banks to give to others, they realise that Louie and his friends mean trouble. As Billy and his family begin a roller coaster ride of fame and fortune, as well as a ranking high on the FBI's most wanted list, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, and must be eliminated. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see the insanity of the American political, economic and military systems, they soon come to realise that the Powers that Be don't play games: they make war. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rod Green|title=Only Fools and Horses: The Rosie EffectPeckham Archives

|genre=HumourEntertainment |summary=Following inadvertent success with We are in the world of one of the Wife Projectcountry's most famous and well-loved sitcoms – even if it was sort-of killed off for Christmas 2003. Yes, there have been specials since, Professor Don Tillman and his new bride Rosie have moved from Australia more repeats to clog up the BBC schedules than is really pukka, but very few people failed to succumb to New Yorkits charms at one time or another. Although DonI's position on m sure there have been books before now celebrating the autistic scale is subjective, he still operates on a daily basis stony-faced reception of structured procedures''that'' drop through the open bar hatch, lists and logic. Rosie can generally handle ''that '' chandelier scene, but there are choppy waters aheadthis is much more meaty. With Purporting to be the patter of tiny feet imminent logic goes out family archives, found dumped in Nelson Mandela House, the window as she struggles documents here were passed from pillar to post, from one council worker in a department with her PhD while Don struggles a clumsy acronym to another, from them to find his place in the baby production process. At least he has his drinking buddies to support him police – an aging rock drummer and a friend whose wife has thrown him out now here they are being published for infidelitytheir social history worth. What could possibly go wrongWill enough readers find them of worth, as the series quietly celebrates its 35th birthday?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07181794711849909245</amazonuk>

|author= Mara Wilson|title=Burnt TonguesWhere Am I Now?: An Anthology True Stories of Transgressive Short Stories|author=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer Girlhood and Richard ThomasAccidental Fame|rating=45|genre=Short StoriesAutobiography|summary=Saying certain things Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and a little out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your headof place: as the only child on a film set full of adults, or better yet not thinking the first daughter in a house full of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to boys, the sensation sole clinically depressed member of Burnt Tongue; a cheerleading squad, a valley girl in New York and a neurotic in California, and an aftereffect adult the world still remembers as a little girl. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex on the set of knowing what you said ''Melrose Place,'' to losing her mother at a young age, to getting her first kiss (or was wrong. Are you prepared it kisses?) on a celebrity canoe trip, to not being cute enough to enter make it in Hollywood, these essays tell the world story of Transgressive Fiction that aims one young woman's journey from accidental fame to disturbrelative obscurity, alienatebut also illuminate a universal struggle: learning to accept yourself, disgust and question?figuring out who you are and where you belong. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X0143128221</amazonuk>

|author=Sammy LookerTony Stuart|title=Something Nasty in the SlushpileWriting Lines|rating=4.5

|summary=I couldn't resist the title George Gordon Wentworth (1946- 2011) lived a neat play on [[Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons|Cold Comfort Farm]] humdrum life. He was a barely adequate teacher in a fairly world renowned independent school in Kent and I'm sure that you'll understand that I kept a copious diary of his quotidian existence. Most of what he recorded was expecting dross. However, amongst all the utterly uninteresting tailings of his life there were some examples of nuggets and grains to catch the horrors to be found amongst attention. Author Tony Stuart has created these amusing anecdotes, panning them out over twenty six episodes which give us the mountain best of unsolicited manuscripts which every publisher accumulatesWentworth – comedy gold. I'll confess I was expecting From losing all the pupils in his charge on a school trip to gigglebeing arrested on suspicion of terrorism; from waking up in bed between the married couple the morning after their wedding, even to groan destroying a ski run; from appearing full-frontal naked in a sheep-farmers' gazette to triggering an air- unkindsea rescue; Wentworth was, I know - blinkered and I'd mentally shelved the book with the triviabefuddled, or (hopefully) the humour. There is that element to the book, subject – of these and so many more unlikely 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 publisherhighly amusing events.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14721110281524634441</amazonuk>

|author=The QueenGraham Fulbright|title=Still ReigningDriving Mad: Maniacs, Morons and the Advanced Motorist's Club|rating=43.5

|summary=Anyone who frequents Twitter will know that it's a mixed blessing. It's a mine of wonderful information I passed my driving test when John F Kennedy was in the White House and supportive camaraderie. ItI's also - unfortunately - home to a lot of people who take great pleasure in causing pain ve recently had to others. But in amongst all this are reapply for my driving licence having achieved a few gems and one of them is [https://twittervenerable age.com/Queen_UK @Queen_UK], a delightful satire on members of When I started driving the royal familyroads were kinder, celebritiesmore forgiving places - or put another way, the political classes idiots were fewer and the state of Her Majesty's nationfurther between. OrI don't know how long Graham Fulbright has been driving, but he certainly knows his motoring morons and in ''oneDriving Mad's nation'' as Ma'am would sayhe brings us a fictional sample of their eccentricities. ''Still Reigning'' is her second bookWell, after I'm pretty certain that they'Gin O'Clock'' and it's the sort of parody which leaves re fictional - but these days you wondering if the writer might not be someone ''very'' close to the originalnever know...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07156491321783062584</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Last Days of the Bus ClubMario Giordano|authortitle=Chris StewartAuntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions

|genre=HumourCrime|summary=I could well have Poldi had not long been a near-neighbour widowed when she decided to move from Bavaria to Sicily with the intention of Chris Stewartdrinking herself to death. NotShe could, of course, near his current primary occupancy, an ecological farmstead just beyond the turning off from the back end of nowhere have done this in the most rural of corners of southern SpainGermany, but back when he lived in the south-east of Englandshe felt that a sea view was essential. Once there, being Genesis' first ever drummernew friends, family already resident on the island and building bridges in the North Downs. The fact I learnt the latter from this book shows up several corpse of the features of this warm-hearted 'travelogue' – the fact that Stewart is never shy about portraying family details and history – given a good map and young man, his face blown off by a prevailing wind one could find where he lives and descend shotgun, whom she found on the farmlocal beach, if one wished; and that intervened to give her life some meaning. For a while this might be on the travel shelvesshe was a suspect, but that (and her wig) were no obstacle to her falling for Commissario Vito Montana who was assigned to investigate the narrative is case. Assisting him (or having him assist her) came naturally to Poldi and before long there was an investigative and personal partnership. At least so fragmented it actually moves a lot more than any of the characters dofar as Poldi was concerned.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>19087454361908524693</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Summer HalfGrady Hendrix|authortitle=Angela ThirkellMy Best Friend's Exorcism|rating=45|genre=HumourHorror|summary=If one didn’t know of Angela Thirkell’s distinguished background as a granddaughter 1988, Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of Sir Edward Burneskinny-Jones and daughter of a classicistdipping goes disatrously wrong, it would be tempting Gretchen begins to describe her as a kind of country cousin of [[:Category:P G Wodehouse|Pact...Gdifferent. Wodehouse’s]]She's moody. An unaffected and intelligent one, whose humour is less sophisticated but bubbles over with just as much gleeShe's irritable. The middle-class world And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she has created, where young men come from families that are comfortably wealthy rather than outrageously so, offers a counterpoint 's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the Mitford or Wodehouse worlds with time their aristocratic characters who travel story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the world fate of Abby and mingle with more louche, bohemian ones.Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184408969X1594748624</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=The Bojeffries SagaKevin MacNeil|authortitle=Alan Moore The Brilliant and Steve ParkhouseForever|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic NovelsHumour|summary=A very truncated history of comics will start with the idea that they should be funny strips – one jape then You know sometimes when someone tells a joke, everyone else laughs, and you're out; then that they should have more – perhaps a superhero; then that you can have sat there wondering what was 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>08616623181846973376</amazonuk>

|author=Reverend Adam SmallboneChristopher Fowler|title=The Rev DiariesBryant and May: Strange Tide|rating=43.5|genre=HumourCrime|summary=Adam Smallbone wasn’t always a vicar. He used to work The thirteenth outing for the Bristol Housing Department, enabling his father-in-law to tell everyone he worked 'in property'Bryant and May is looking very much like it will be their last. From thereArthur Bryant is on compassionate leave whilst tests are continuing, his initial calling was to a rural church in Suffolk which did nothing are likely to prepare him for this, his current London inner city parish. Indeed, confirm that heis suffering from Alzheimer's not prepared for Adoha (the Nigerian parishioner with 19 grandchildren and 'the bottom of God') or Colin, 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 allHis condition is worsening almost by the day, she didn't actually marry a vicarmemory lapses are morphing into full-scale hallucinations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07181783940857523422</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Look Who's BackKevin Smith|authortitle=Timur VermesThe Voyage of the Dolphin

|genre=General Historical Fiction|summary=''Hitler Youth Ronaldo! Which way Dublin 1916: Among the unrest and anti-British feeling worsened by the threat of conscription into a war seen as nothing to do with the street?Irish, Trinity College faculty has other distractions. They'' With these words d like a very misguided Nazi Fuhrer asks for his first directions in trophy; the Berlin skeleton of 2011an Irish 'giant' to be precise. Mistakenly believing The only glitch is that the lad main trophy contender, Bernard MacNeill's skeleton, is somewhere difficult to access and all seasoned explorers are otherwise engaged. There may be hope though. They turn to Fitzmaurice, a party junior member student not good enough for anything else. Fitzmaurice agrees, picking his friends Crozier and Rafferty to go with his own name on his football shirt, he also thinks for a while it is still 1945him. HeSo… ''s soon informed of the truthGentlemen, but still makes some unfortunate conclusions lace up your strongest boots and pack your warmest underwear – that we're all off to the street kiosks selling Turkish language newspapers bloody Arctic!'' Whether battle cry or epitaph, three men and a dog… and an iguana… are going anyway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124826</amazonuk>|amazonus=<amazonus>1910124826</amazonus>}}{{newreview|author=Tony Hawks|title=Once Upon a sign of Time in the West… Country|rating=3|genre=Travel|summary=I have often complained in a Soviet-beating alliance between jokey voice to my partner about life in the two countriessticks, that people eat granola bars because and the war still leads way she moved me from an inner-city flat to slumming it in the suburbs with fewer busses, no takeaways within walking-and-keeping-food-hot distance, and no 'Polish' shops for a bread shortagecan of beer whenever you fancy one. Things are different with Tony Hawks, and that as here he has purposefully decided to up sticks from London to Somewhere, Devon – a tiny village where the people making an ironic speech bubble with who built their fingers own homes decades ago still live in them, where slugs are a lot more of a problem for the air is all that is left of wannabe lettuce-grower than they are for the Hitler salute. But yesmetropolitan commuter, after and where village halls have the power to turn you into both a Pol Pot dictator if you get on their committee and into a long hiatus neither he nor our author is particularly concerned with explainingquivering, ''that man'' is back – and bruise-inducing wreck if he has his way heyou's going to be just as popular this time round…re the wrong gender at a Zumba class…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08570529261444794809</amazonuk>

|author=Adam RuckMarian Keyes|title=The Bluffer's Guide to Golf (Bluffer's Guides)Making It Up As I Go Along

|genre=SportEntertainment|summary=The fly leaf suggests that this Bluffer's Guide is Oh, how the way book reviewing gods like to instantly acquire all the knowledge which you need give, and equally like to pass as an expert in the ''arcane and labyrinthine'' world of golftake away. ThereHere before me is a brand, spanking new collection of journalism by the wonderful Marian Keyes – but it's quite a bit proof copy, so there that I'd agree on - s no photo of the author. Even if over the rules (and years I have stopped reading her novels, I have always turned to an unfortunate extent the ''attitudes'') are arcane and they seem author picture to take remind myself such sights exist in this world. Himself is a lucky man, for sure. But beyond sounding like a lifetime to masterletch, but therewhat can I say about this – the beauty's a surprising amount third large dose of information tucked away inside this little book. essays, web columns and other journalism? What I might quibble can start with is whether or agreeing that I am not you would the target audience, but it''pass as an expert'' (which suggests s easy enough to see from these pages exactly what the target is. So much like that test you do – you're something know the one, that formulates decisions about the age and commonality of all things in space to come up with how many billions of a con man): there's enough detail here planets are likely to give have alien life on – you can narrow things down quite readily here, and still come up with a solid grounding without needing to bluffhuge number.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>19093653270718182529</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=The Collected Works of A J FikryJean-Yves Ferri|authortitle=Gabrielle ZevinAsterix and the Missing Scroll (Album 36)|rating=45|genre=General FictionFor Sharing|summary=A J Fikry Asterix is not having a good timethose rarest of book series; one designed for kids which is actually even funnier when you are an adult. He's lost his wife I used to love Asterix as a car crashchild, and he's not making but now that much money. The book store he runs, stuck out on a limb on a quiet island community, is too remote to turn a profit year-round, and he has just dismissed the latest publisherI reread them I can's rep to turn up at his doort help but wonder why, partly because her previous counterpart, an inconsequential part they are so full of A Jhilarious jokes that I definitely wouldn's life t have understood when all is said and done, had died I was younger. I laughed loud and he didn't know about it. But his bad time is about hard to get a lot worse, as myself twice within the one thing he owns worth first two pages of Asterix and the most – Missing Scroll, so I'd definitely say that this was a rare book, more valuable than his house, his business, anything – is about to vanishhit. Which bizarrely will cause several major changes to his one-person household…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14087046171510100458</amazonuk>