Changes

|author=Spadge WhittakerDavid Jester|title=Braver Than Britain, OccasionallyForever After: a dark comedy|rating=4|genre=HumourParanormal|summary=In which Spadge researches Britain's top ten fears Michael Holland is a cocky and faces them all over brash young man who dies and gets made the course offer of a yearhis lifetime; immortality. We're quite follow Michael, a fearful society, you know. And the things we fear most are, in order: heights grim reaper and his friends Chip (acrophobiaa stoner tooth fairy), snakes and Naff (ophidiophobia), public speaking (glossophobia), spiders (arachnophobia), small spaces (claustrophobia), mice (musophobia), needles (trypanophobia), flying (pteromerhanophobia), crowds (agoraphobiaa stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and clowns (coulrophobia)finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>09934299041510704361</amazonuk>

|author= Mike BullenNina Stibbe|title= TrustAn Almost Perfect Christmas|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionHumour |summary= Greg Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and Amanda are happyif that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Unmarried Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, but together thirteen years and get too friendly with two young daughtersit to want to eat it. Christmas, they are very much though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in love. Dan hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and Sarah aren't so fortunate. Their marriage is going through beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the motionsthank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and they're staying together as for the sake makers of their troubled teenage son. Following a business conference away from home, one bad decision sends a happy couple into turmoilMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and turns an unhappy couple into love's young dream. As secrets and betrayals threaten to send both relationships out sell them any other time of control, there's only one thing that can keep everything from falling apart: Trustthe year?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07515592530241309824</amazonuk>

|author=Dan RhodesIan Doescher|title=When William Shakespeare's the Professor Got Stuck in Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the SnowSeventh

|genre=General Science Fiction|summary= Two people are on A long time ago, in a train on their way togalaxy far away, of all thingsthere was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a WI meeting where the ladies series of All Bottoms will be lectured on the non-existence dramatic histories full of Godmachinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. One of You may or may not have noticed the two people is Professor Richard Dawkins, rampant atheist, hectoring scientist chappie, and all-round devotee cinematic version of his original stage play for ''Deal or No Deal''. The other is Smee, his mono-named assistant, amanuensis or Force Doth Awaken'male secretary'. Smee will come to the fore when the weather sets in and the train journey has to be abandoned some way short of its ultimate destination, Upper Bottom. Instead the pair fetch up but here at last we get the isolated yet friendly community of Market Hortonactual script, and the only option for accommodation is taken – yes, the diedcomplete with annoying-in-thedifferent-wool nonways-believer has to be housed by a retired vicar -before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and his wifepeople keeping it in the family til it hurts. This clash of titanic opinionsAnd if you need further encouragement, peppered with social faux pas aplenty will provide for a particularly English kind don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of farcical comedy, but one with Henry VI – here the legs series is so popular we're on to go part seven – surely making this over twice as far as any other Good Books have reached in the past…good…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709018159474985X</amazonuk>

|author=Rob TempleJames Goss and Russell T Davies|title=Very British Problems AbroadDoctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)|rating=4.5|genre=HumourChildren's Rhymes and Verse |summary=Meet, if you haven't already, Consider the phenomenon of the Very British ProblemDoctor. In this format they're Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in pithy little comments (touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some ofthem, oohsay, about 140 characters in lengthfor example, for some reason…) and detail whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the minor things in life of a Time Lord and that we like nothing more than to inflate to a major factor of lifesome of his friends and enemies. They can involve mannersAs luck would have it, staring at things until they mend themselveshe has the space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, hitting things dittoso my advice to him – sorry, or the fact that nobody apart from you her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and I know how to queue properlyget himself ready. And if the idea hits the world outside our shoresyou're working on a shorter timescale, then – wellwith a shorter lifespan, you certainly have a book full of content regarding our attitude and ineptitude abroadthinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07515584941785942719</amazonuk>

|author=Fraser McAlpineAnnie Ingram|title=Stuff Brits LikeConversations with Kammie

|genre=HumourPets|summary= With over 100 chapters on different aspects It was something of Britain and Britishness, this book is both fascinating a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and hilariousher cocker spaniel Kammie. Just looking at the list You see, Annie knows something which has been self-evident to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of subjects is enough to produce communicating with humans and not just on a sardonic twist level of that stiff upper lip: the chapters cover topics that range from offal ''food!'', ''walk!'' or ''play!''. You do require extensive training to currybecome fluent, from pedantry but most dogs will be perfectly willing to banter, from conkers give their time to rugby. There may be many chapters but this is no academic tome - each chapter is just two teach you and all you have to three pages long, each do is written with endearing affection, each is easy listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and satisfying - and quirkily funny - the pair have allowed us to readshare some of their conversations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>18578863481785451995</amazonuk>

|author= John SamuelCharles Harris|title= What I Tell You in the DarkThe Breaking of Liam Glass|rating= 3.5|genre= HumourCrime|summary=A man called Will is fighting fiercely against corruption – desperate to expose his companyflawed but reasonably entertaining swipe at modern media. There's dodgy dealings plenty here to the press. Overcome with doubt like, and fear, he goes plenty not to kill himself. But, at the exact moment he attaches his noose to the back of the door, he is saved. By a curious housemate or a concerned girlfriend? No, by an Angel. Not the white-feathered guardian Angel you may expect, but good structure and scramjet pace keep this one who wishes flying to help Will achieve his ends, and so possess the body of the hapless Will in order to finish what he startedfinal page. It goes without saying that the Angel is hoping things go better than they did with the last guy he possessed – a hapless young man from Galilee called Jesus…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07156505051908943823</amazonuk>

|author= John NivenFred Van Lente|title= The Sunshine Cruise CompanyTen Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery|rating= 4.5

|summary= Susan Frobisher and Julie Wickham live in Nine comedians are invited to a remote Caribbean island under the guise of working with Dustin Walker, a small Dorset towncomedic legend. Friends since schoolEach fits neatly into one of the archetypal comic stereotypes: Steve, they live fairly uneventful lives – Susan the washed-up has -been who has fallen far from his early days; Zoe, the rising female star with a lovely house and new stand-up special coming soon; Dante, who went from being a lengthy marriage kid on the streets to accountant Barry, whereas Julie is doing slightly less well – living in a council flat and the hardest working road comic in an old peoplethe business; Oliver, the child-like prop comic who can's home. When Barry t get any respect from his peers; Janet, the insult comic who is found dead trussed up in a sex dungeonpast her prime; TJ, it transpires that he has been leading the nightly variety show host with a hidden life reputation for yearsharassing his female colleagues and guest acts; Ruby, the ultra-feminist YouTuber and his expensive fetishes lead to Blogger with a chip on her shoulder; and William, whose redneck character ''Billy the bank moving to take SusanContractor''s home. Struck by both desperation and is a sense of injustice, Sue and Julie conspire to rob far cry from his real personality as a bankposh millionaire. Of course, taking along their friend Jill – all nine agree because ''when God almighty walks down on a devout Christian conflicted due to lack beam of money light and a terminally ill grandsonasks for your help, and Ethel – a foul mouthed resident of what the nursing home longing for adventure.hell else are you going to say?''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>04340231831594749744</amazonuk>

|author=Marie PhillipsS Lynn Scott|title=The Table Of Less Valued KnightsElizabeth, William... and Me

|genre=FantasyHumour|summary=Sir Humphrey has been demoted from King Arthur's Round Table to the Table of Lesser Valued Knights. The only way to get his comfier seat back Ally is to redeem himself via an ordinary woman with teenage children, a husband and a questjob. Therefore Then comes the day when damsel Elaine seeks help to find her kidnapped fiancé, Humphrey and his ward, ordinariness flies out of the teenage giant Conrad, eagerly set forthwindow. Meanwhile It's not a coincidence that it's the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth I in the kingdom pantry and the Bard of Tuft, new Queen Martha has run away after a disastrous wedding to… a… well… disastrous Prince EdwinAvon in her bath. She may not realise it yetWhat's she going to do? Well, but she too will Elizabeth and Will have a job for Humphreytheir own ideas about that!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>00995558751788037006</amazonuk>

|author=Tim FlanneryE G Rodford|title=The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish2|rating=34|genre=Historical FictionCrime |summary=Meet Archie Meek. He's about to leave In the Venus Islandssecond instalment of this series, where he's lived for the last five years, and return Private Investigator George Kocharyan has been hired by a well-known local man to Sydneytrack down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraith, where he'll take his office in the museum and fill it with all the cultural artefacts hea world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's found and wildlife heAddenbrooke's plucked or pickled. That's not to ignore the fact he'll count as something quite alien himselfHospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, with has had his briefcase stolen by his filledlive-out framein domestic servant, nearly all-over suntan and totemic tattooAurora. According to Galbraith, in amongst other changes to his body. But what's this? When he gets back, he finds one briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the main Venus Islands artefacts that caused him hospital. George agrees to go there in look into the first placetheft, assuming it will be a hugerelatively easy and straightforward case – little does he know, macabre ceremonial fetish mask, purloined as corporate artwork. And some of the curators he wishes to work alongside have vanished. Is the weird society of the museum he's returning about to, perchance, even weirder, stranger enter a world of deceit and more violent than the cannibalistic society he's waving farewell to?dysfunction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922079308178565005X</amazonuk>

|author=Roman DirgeToni Jordan|title=The Cat with a Really Big HeadOur Tiny, Useless Hearts|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic NovelsWomen's Fiction|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 As predicted by Caroline and Janice'none – yets mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding day, scratch that last wordtheir marriage is over, albeit 15 years and two daughters further along than predicted. The title piece in Indeed, this collection is, by the authordefinitely not a good weekend for Janice to be babysitting at Caroline's house. There's own admission, his imagining of the Joseph Merrick (split and the 'Elephant Man') awkwardness of the feline world – who struggles to sneak up behind a mouse when girls' schoolteacher being the shadow of his head is other woman for a total giveaway, and who can hardly even eat with dignity as bending down to his bowl would break his neckstart. If thatThen there's too dark or oddball for you, try that mistaken identity moment involving the second major piece, which has a most revealing foreword – ''Dedicated to a certain girl… I hope your life neighbours. At least Janice is filled with wonderful accomplishments, love well adjusted and all the magic you desire… over her ex- But I hope your death is slow and horriblehusband Alec. She still dreams of him, yes, but it's so over! Just as well really… guess who's at the door?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17827628761760293814</amazonuk>

|author=Val HennessyColin Taylor|title=Not Far From DreamlandThe Life of a Scilly Sergeant

|genre=General FictionTravel|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 Meet the free television licence barrierIsles of Scilly. What Ronald ''has'' got is a roof that leaks (there's good reason why his home is I know they should be called 'that – the author provides a handy guide to the shack'etiquette of their name, their nature and location, etc.) For our more distant readers, a dog who is going bald (in patches) and money thatthey's re several chunks of granite rock out in very short supplythe Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residents. On the plus side he has friendsThey're big on tourism, mostly platonic and usually big on growing flowers in much the same boat as Ronaldtropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. But are they downhearted? Well, they are occasionally, but mostly theyThey're generously optimistic so wee, and out to make the most of what they've gotso idyllic-seeming, especially at night, usually bought from charity shops and jumble salesyou can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a police presence. ''Not Far From Dreamland'' But there is the story – at least two working at any one time. And one of them in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a year (2012) in well-known online existence, which has brought to life all the life whimsical comedy of Ronald Tonks, his friends and relativeswork.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373874178475515X</amazonuk>

|author=Harry HarrisonJosie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees|title=Bill, 'Twas the Galactic HeroFight Before Christmas: A Parody

|genre=Science FictionHumour|summary=Meet Bill. HeIt's a simple farmer – well, he ''is'' taking a correspondence course in being a Technical Fertiliser Operator – but fate Christmas Eve and Mum has something else in storearranged everything. And so does All she now has to do is await the arrival of the mechanised, technological, industrial military, which needs several billion grunts to fight relatives and the Chingers, in mankind's first inter-galactic warfood shopping delivery. Still, at least he gets medals just for signing up. After Little does Mum know that it's all downhill, and those two elements alone have the likes of Petty Chief Officer Deathwish Drang can only make that a straight line downpotential to ruin everything. Really, what hope is there?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320531X1472125118</amazonuk>

|author=Ian DoescherRyan North|title=William Shakespeare's The Phantom of MenaceRomeo and/or Juliet|rating=43.5

|summary= Join usFor all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted and prescribed, good gentlesread on. In these pages you too will see that Romeo had lots of options en route to hitting the bottle. Likewise, for a merry reimagining of `Star Wars Episode 1' as only Shakespeare she could have written itturned away from her predestined path at no end of junctures. 'Tis And to what result? Well, happy marriage and a true Shakespearean dramakid called Ben, filled with sword fights, soliloquies because the leads have just banged people's heads together and doomed romance…all in glorious iambic pentameter and coupled with gorgeous illustrations. Hold on to your midichlorians: The plays stopped the thingquarrelling, wherein you'll catch the rise of Anakin!or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous women, such as a Lady M (her). |amazonuk=<amazonuk>15947480630356508536</amazonuk>

|author=AttaboyGervase Phinn|title=The Book of HugsVirgin Mary's Got Nits|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=A hug's Christmas in our house is the time we tend to get on a hugplane and head to either sun or snow, OK? You either doanywhere that is far, far away from the madness at home, or you don't. Some people might be a little more enthusiastic about last minute dashes to the process whilst others shops on Christmas Eve, and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are more elegant in shutting for a month, nor a mere 36 hours. But I do remember the execution feeling of the hugChristmas when I was younger, back when it was magical, but basically and back when you just get on knew exactly what the season would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and do it Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of those moments, and then forget about it, took me right?back to the wonder of Christmas as a child.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08671979781444779400</amazonuk>

|author= Christopher FowlerKieran Crowley|title= Bryant and May – The Burning ManShoot|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) has I make something of a new set habit of overlordsbeing late to discover good writers, in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with us. For reasons The result is that were explored in what is billed as ''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' with all the previous couple optimism of outings they have been transferred there being more to come has the City Of London Police. The Met are still the big players in the area. City poignancy of London Police only police the old citybeing, if not the square mile, the financial district in other words, that has very little in the way last of street crimea short line, because no-certainly one lives there anymore of a few. F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like his first name and the people who work there areprefers just "Shepherd" is, technically, a columnist. He's been sacked by one New York newspaper and largeis writing a weekly column for another. 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 book, either too rich you'll see what I mean) expects him to need to stealturn in some genuine journalism as well: front page, or too smart to have to do so on the streetsseat of your pants stuff.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08575220431783296518</amazonuk>

|author=Catharina Ingelman-SundbergGray Jolliffe|title=The Little Old Lady First Ever Christmas: And Who Struck Lucky Again! to Blame|rating=3.5

|summary=Following the success of If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyone? Well, I really don't like Christmas: it'The Little Old Lady Who Broke All s my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down to the Rulesday itself, I look forward to that point when I can say that it's all over for another year. It's all too commercialised for me, the League with a coating of Pensioners are back – and this time, they’re in Vegas! faux religion. I haven’t read the first book but 've never found it was on my list when in the opportunity arose least funny - that is, until I found Gray Jolliffe's ''The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to review this oneBlame''. The idea of the League of Pensioners marching towards Amazingly, I'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe either, but I'm a fairer world through fun and frolics was hugely appealing convert to me and this is his skills as a stand alone novel so I thought I would dive straight in with cartoonist (if not to the idea of Christmas) after reading this onecollection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14472749031445663503</amazonuk>

|author=WinshlussJonathan Pugh|title=In God We TrustPugh's New Year's Resolutions

|genre=Graphic NovelsHumour|summary=To start withIf there's one thing that's for certain, a rhetorical testit's that the world is changing. How about God We're dating online, we're communicating in ways that make email seem redundant, and Adam playing badminton day in when we're shopping we just tell a website where and day outwhen it can be delivered, until one gets bored and decides how much leeway they have to create Eve? swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring us. Or the defeater of Goliath and the saviour of the Israelites being one Conan the Barbarian? Or this as a test But those changes are also supposed to be affecting us – Jesus Himself failing we're supposed to have use a successful session of tequila slammers with Gabriel due smart watch to the holes through His hands? I barely need mention that in these pages God does battle with Supermantell us if we're moving or not, for you we have to have answered keep up with the test latest fads, and put yourself firmly in one of two camps for this book – one very much opposed we're supposed to buying it, prick our ears up and one very much in favourtake note when the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08616623501780722885</amazonuk>

|author=David Walliams and Tony RossLuke Rhinehart|title=The Queen's Orang-UtanInvasion|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingHumour |summary=The Queen felt trapped in 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 palace with all those stuffed animals which she has been given on foreign toursplayful alien. There are mountains of them 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 every night she would dream of escapinghis friends mean trouble. When her birthday drew near the As Billy and his family dutifully asked her what she would like as begin a present. The Prince was thinking roller coaster ride of fame and fortune, as well as a goldranking high on the FBI's most wanted list, diamond encrusted stairlift whilst the Duke was considering a great big bottle 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 brandy. The Royal Baby had some decorated thimbles in mindthe American political, economic and military systems, but they soon come to realise that the Queen became just a little snappish as she explained Powers that what she really wanted was 'One's own orang-utan'. And she didnBe don't mean a stuffed one, eitherplay games: they make war.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>00081351341785651757</amazonuk>

|author=Jack SheffieldRod Green|title=Silent NightOnly Fools and Horses: The Peckham Archives|rating=3.54|genre=General FictionEntertainment |summary=We are in the world of one of the country's most famous and well-loved sitcoms – even if it was sort-of killed off for Christmas 2003. Yes, there have been specials since, and more repeats to clog up the BBC schedules than is really pukka, but very few people failed to succumb to its charms at one time or another. I read a couple 'm sure there have been books before now celebrating the stony-faced reception of Jack Sheffield’s books about five years ago''that'' drop through the open bar hatch, and enjoyed them very ''that'' chandelier scene, but this is muchmore meaty. They were written in a similar style Purporting to those popularised bybe the family archives, for instancefound dumped in Nelson Mandela House, James Herriot or [[:Category:Gervase Phinn|Gervase Phinn]]the documents here were passed from pillar to post, told mostly from one council worker in the first persona department with a clumsy acronym to another, describing from them to the author’s first couple of years as Headmaster at a small village primary school in Yorkshirepolice – and now here they are being published for their social history worth. The village Will enough readers find them of Ragley is fictionalworth, as are most of the characters, but the incidents and situations encountered are based on the author’s experience.series quietly celebrates its 35th birthday?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>05521670451849909245</amazonuk>

|author=J Robert LennonMara Wilson|title=See You In ParadiseWhere Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame|rating=35|genre=Short StoriesAutobiography|summary=Lennon writes with Mara Wilson has always felt a relaxed, easy style little young and his characters are instantly recognisable a little out of place: as people from everyday walks the only child on a film set full of lifeadults, without being the first daughter in any way stereotypical. Many a house full of boys, the people sole clinically depressed member of a cheerleading squad, a valley girl in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, New York 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 a neurotic in the eponymous taleCalifornia, who is and an archetypal capitalist fat cat)adult the world still remembers as a little girl. There are some very clever characterisations – in Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex on the set of ''Weber’s HeadMelrose Place,''to losing her mother at a young age, for exampleto getting her first kiss (or was it kisses?) on a celebrity canoe trip, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfair. For menot being cute enough to make it in Hollywood, these essays tell the most unsettling story is ''No Life'of one young woman's journey from accidental fame to relative obscurity, because it portrays but also illuminate a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful universal struggle: learning to accept yourself, and figuring out who you are and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social powerwhere you belong.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17812533580143128221</amazonuk>

|author=Lynne TrussTony Stuart|title=Cat out of HellWriting Lines|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 cat4. 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>}}{{newreview|author=Jimmy Hansen and Mychailo Kazybird|title=Wallace & Gromit : The Complete Newspaper Strips Collection Vol 2|rating=45

|summary=For me there are two important areas of the cover of this book where three letters are arranged George Gordon Wentworth (1946-2011) lived a humdrum life. He was a barely adequate teacher in meaningful ways. The first is with the S-U-N a fairly world renowned independent school in their obligatory red Kent and white fontkept a copious diary of his quotidian existence. No minor paper could hold Wallace and Gromit, their adventures have to be in Most of what is (unfortunately) the most widely read tabloid in the countryhe recorded was dross. And elsewhere is C-B-EHowever, suggesting that even amongst all the storytellers at Aardman Animations who are not household names are feted utterly uninteresting tailings of his life there were some nuggets and revered as artistic experts, raising many laughs and much money for grains to catch the country courtesy of their creative outputattention. Together Author Tony Stuart has created these short collections of letters show just how much WaG are major creationsamusing anecdotes, and if panning them out over twenty six episodes which give us the proof was needed this much longer collection best of their daily comic strips provides it Wentworth – comedy gold. From losing all the pupils in spades.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782760822</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Dear Committee Members|author=Julie Schumacher|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jason Fitger (Jay) is his charge on a Professor school trip to being arrested on suspicion of creative writing and literature at a small university terrorism; from waking up in bed between the American midmarried couple the morning after their wedding, to destroying a ski run; from appearing full-west. He is also frontal naked in a frustrated novelist with a colourful personal historysheep-farmers' gazette to triggering an air-sea rescue; Wentworth was, blinkered and befuddled, much the subject – of which bleeds into his professional life, with interesting resultsthese and so many more unlikely but highly amusing events.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>00075863451524634441</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Mapp and Lucia OmnibusGraham Fulbright|authortitle=E F BensonDriving Mad: Maniacs, Morons and the Advanced Motorist's Club

|summary=Miss Elizabeth Mapp rules the town of Tilling - she is the centre of I passed my driving test when John F Kennedy was in the social life, White House and spends her days enjoying bridge, polite conversation and civilised paintingI've recently had to reapply for my driving licence having achieved a venerable age. When Mrs Emmeline Lucas arrives in town (known to all as Lucia)I started driving the roads were kinder, Miss Mapp finds her life truly shaken upmore forgiving places - or put another way, as the culturedidiots were fewer and further between. I don't know how long Graham Fulbright has been driving, fashionable but he certainly knows his motoring morons and progressive Lucia makes her home in the town''Driving Mad'' he brings us a fictional sample of their eccentricities. Well, and swiftly rises to the top of the ranks amongst the social scene in TillingI'm pretty certain that they're fictional - but these days you never know...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>18499084781783062584</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Encyclopedia ParanoiacaMario Giordano|authortitle=Henry Beard Auntie Poldi and Christopher Cerfthe Sicilian Lions

|genre=Popular ScienceCrime|summary=We're screwedPoldi had not long been widowed when she decided to move from Bavaria to Sicily with the intention of drinking herself to death. Wherever we lookShe could, whatever we think of doingcourse, there is a reason why we shouldn't be doing ithave done this in Germany, and people to back but she felt that reason up with scientific dataa sea view was essential. Take any aspect Once there, new friends, family already resident on the island and the corpse of your daily life – what you eata young man, how you workhis face blown off by a shotgun, how you rest evenwhom she found on the local beach, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness or worseintervened to give her life some meaning. And outside For a while she was a suspect, but that daily sphere there are economic disasters, nuclear meltdowns, errant AI scientists (and passing comets that could turn our world upside down at her wig) were no obstacle to her falling for Commissario Vito Montana who was assigned to investigate the blink of case. Assisting him (or having him assist her) came naturally to Poldi and before long there was an eyeinvestigative and personal partnership. Perhaps then you better read this book first – for it may well turn out to be your last…At least so far as Poldi was concerned.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07156492131908524693</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Diary of a Mad DivaGrady Hendrix|authortitle=Joan RiversMy Best Friend's Exorcism|rating=3.5|genre=HumourHorror|summary=The late Joan Rivers was1988, without a doubtCharleston, a characterSouth Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. Actress, comedian, writer, director, presenterBut after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act...different. She's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she was well known in the USA and beyond for 's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her sharp tongue to some startling discoveries - and no holds barred persona. This was by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the last fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the dozen books she published, her final title before her death in September 2014.devil?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>04252690271594748624</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - The Nearly Definitive EditionKevin MacNeil|authortitle=Douglas AdamsThe Brilliant and Forever|rating=3.5|genre=General FictionHumour|summary=There are few series that have garnered such You know sometimes when someone tells a cult following as 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'. Whether the fans have come from the radio series, the (impossibly hard) computer gamejoke, or the (well intentioned but not particularly good) film, they are everywhere. Ask a room of people what the meaning of life iseveryone else laughs, and you can be pretty sure a good few will pipe up with '42' as the answer.re sat there wondering what was so funny?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>04340233961846973376</amazonuk>

|titleauthor=Quick Pint After WorkChristopher Fowler|authortitle=Luke LewisBryant and May: Strange Tide|rating=43.5|genre=HumourCrime|summary=BuzzFeed The thirteenth outing for Bryant and May is one of the world’s best time sucks, and I’m regularly directed to the site by links from Facebook and Twitter, in between browsing the app on my phonelooking very much like it will be their last. According to the author bio Arthur Bryant is on this bookcompassionate leave whilst tests are continuing, BuzzFeed which are likely to confirm that he is suffering from Alzheimer'a social news and entertainment company', which s. His condition is a fancy way of describing lots of fun lists that speak to worsening almost by the readership (20 words that have a completely different meaning in Manchesterday, 30 Things all exmemory lapses are morphing into full-gymnasts know to be true, 40 Very British problems, yadda yadda yadda). These list work well on line when you want a quick distraction, and they’re easy to flip through, looking at the attached photos or video clips. The question then, is whether or not BuzzFeed the book will have the same appealscale hallucinations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07515577300857523422</amazonuk>

|author=Graeme SimsionKevin Smith|title=The Rosie EffectVoyage of the Dolphin|rating=45|genre=HumourHistorical Fiction|summary=Following inadvertent success 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 Wife ProjectIrish, Professor Don Tillman and his new bride Rosie have moved from Australia to New YorkTrinity College faculty has other distractions. Although DonThey's position on d like a trophy; the autistic scale skeleton of an Irish 'giant' to be precise. The only glitch is subjectivethat the main trophy contender, he still operates on a daily basis of structured proceduresBernard MacNeill's skeleton, lists is somewhere difficult to access and logicall seasoned explorers are otherwise engaged. Rosie can generally handle that but there are choppy waters aheadThere may be hope though. With the patter of tiny feet imminent logic goes out the window as she struggles with her PhD while Don struggles They turn to find his place in the baby production processFitzmaurice, a student not good enough for anything else. At least he has Fitzmaurice agrees, picking his drinking buddies friends Crozier and Rafferty to support go with him . So… ''Gentlemen, lace up your strongest boots and pack your warmest underwear – an aging rock drummer we're all off to the bloody Arctic!'' Whether battle cry or epitaph, three men and a friend whose wife has thrown him out for infidelitydog… and an iguana… are going anyway. What could possibly go wrong?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07181794711910124826</amazonuk>|amazonus=<amazonus>1910124826</amazonus>

|titleauthor=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short StoriesTony Hawks|authortitle=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard ThomasOnce Upon a Time in the West… Country|rating=43|genre=Short StoriesTravel|summary=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 headI have often complained in a jokey voice to my partner about life in the sticks, or better yet not thinking of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead and the way she moved me from an inner-city flat to slumming it in the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect suburbs with fewer busses, no takeaways within walking-and-keeping-food-hot distance, and no 'Polish' shops for a can of knowing what beer whenever you said was wrongfancy one. Are you prepared Things are different with Tony Hawks, as here he has purposefully decided to up sticks from London to enter Somewhere, Devon – a tiny village where the world people who built their own homes decades ago still live in them, where slugs are a lot more of Transgressive Fiction that aims a problem for the wannabe lettuce-grower than they are for the metropolitan commuter, and where village halls have the power to disturbturn you into both a Pol Pot dictator if you get on their committee and into a quivering, alienate, disgust and question?bruise-inducing wreck if you're the wrong gender at a Zumba class…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X1444794809</amazonuk>