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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreview|authorclass-"wikitable" cellpadding=Gray Jolliffe"15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->|title=The First Ever Christmas: And Who to Blame<!-- Hogan -->|rating=5-|genrestyle=Humour|summary"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473669065.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473669065/ref=If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyonenosim? Well, I really don't like Christmas: ittag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Queenie Malone's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down to the day itselfParadise Hotel by Ruth Hogan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]] Tilda returns to Brighton, I look forward to that point when I can say that ittidy away the remains of her mother's all over for another yearlife after her death. It's all too commercialised for meWhilst there, she returns to the Paradise hotel, with a coating of faux religionhaven for eccentrics and misfits. I've never found it in the least funny - A place where people can be themselves, and let go of thoughts that is, until I found Gray Jolliffe's ''The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to Blame''torment them elsewhere. AmazinglyLittle wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a child, I'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe eitherfrom this place of wonder. With the help of Queenie Malone, caring, and gregarious, but I'm a convert to his skills as a cartoonist (if not Tilda begins to pick apart the idea of Christmas) after reading this collection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archive.tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother. [[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan|amazonuk=Full Review]] <amazonuk!-- van LENTE -->1445663503</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jonathan Pugh-|titlestyle=Pugh's New Year's Resolutions"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1683690346.jpg|ratinglink=4http://www.amazon.co.5uk/dp/1683690346/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  |genrestyle=Humour"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||summary=If there's one thing that's for certain, it's that the world is changing==[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente]]=== [[image:4star. We're dating online, we're communicating in ways that make email seem redundantjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], and when we're shopping we just tell [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Comic-Cons are a website where place of wonder and when it can be deliveredsanctuary for many people, and how much leeway they have to swap our wishes when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's looking for whatever it both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, plus the chance of maybe, just maybe reuniting with his ex. However, when his rival is they do bring us. But those changes are also supposed found dead, Mike is forced to navigate every dark corner of the con in order to be affecting us clear his name – we're supposed from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to use a smart watch to tell us if we're moving or notzombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, we have to keep up with the latest fadsin doing so, and we're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eatmay just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]]  |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885</amazonuk!-- Coulton -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= Luke Rhinehart"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|title= Invasion[[image:1473669588.jpg|ratinglink= 4http://www.5|genre= Humour amazon.co.uk/dp/1473669588/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  |summarystyle=Super"vertical-align: top; text-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universealign: left;"|===[[Falling Short by Lex Coulton]]=== [[image:4star. And they've come to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one dayjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], 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[[:Category:Humour|Humour]], stealing millions from banks to give to others[[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Lex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, they realise that Louie and his friends mean troublerelationships. As Billy and his family begin The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a roller coaster ride of fame and fortune, as well as sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a ranking high on the FBI's most wanted listwork colleague, and is grappling with the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, and must be eliminatedincreasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. Whilst This relationship is complicated by 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 fact that Be donFrances't play games: they make wars father disappeared at sea when she was five years old. [[Falling Short by Lex Coulton|amazonuk=Full Review]] <amazonuk!-- van LENTE -->1785651757</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rod Green-|titlestyle=Only Fools and Horses"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: The Peckham Archivescenter;"|rating=4[[image:1683690346.jpg|genrelink=Entertainment |summaryhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690346/ref=We are in the world of one of the country's most famous and wellnosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-loved sitcoms – even if it was sortalign: top; text-of killed off for Christmas 2003. Yes, there have been specials sincealign: left;"|===[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], and more repeats to clog up the BBC schedules than is really pukka, but very few [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Comic-Cons are a place of wonder and sanctuary for many people failed to succumb to its charms , and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at one time or another. ISan Diego Comic-Con, he'm sure there have been books before now celebrating s looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, plus the stony-faced reception chance of ''that'' drop through the open bar hatchmaybe, and ''that'' chandelier scenejust maybe reuniting with his ex. However, but this when his rival is much more meaty. Purporting to be the family archives, found dumped in Nelson Mandela Housedead, Mike is forced to navigate every dark corner of the documents here were passed from pillar to post, from one council worker con in a department with a clumsy acronym order to another, clear his name – from them cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to the police zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and now here they are being published for their social history worth, in doing so, may just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator. Will enough readers find them of worth, as the series quietly celebrates its 35th birthday?[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849909245</amazonuk!-- Curran -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= Mara Wilson"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1683690133.jpg|titlelink=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690133/ref= Where Am I Nownosim?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fametag=thebookbag-21]]  |ratingstyle= 5"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||genre= Autobiography==[[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|summarylink= Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and a little out of placeCategory: as the only child on a film set full of adults{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], the first daughter in [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] You are a house full lass of boys, the sole clinically depressed member of a cheerleading squadtwenty eight. Plucky, a valley girl in New York penniless and a neurotic in California, and an adult the world still remembers as a little girl. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex Regency era London the race is on the set of ''Melrose Place,'' to losing her mother at find a young age, suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to getting her first kiss (or was it kisses?) on life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey you'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a celebrity canoe triplife alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes to not being cute enough suitors though, you'll have to make it in Hollywood, these essays tell the story of one young woman's journey from accidental fame to relative obscurityultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, but also illuminate a universal struggle: learning to accept yourselfwholesome, rugged and figuring out who you are caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, bad and where you belongterrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. |amazonuk=With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, it's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision... [[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris|Full Review]] <amazonuk>0143128221</amazonuk!-- Jester -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= Tony Stuart"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jester_Forever.jpg|title= Writing Linesleft|ratinglink= 4https://www.amazon.co.5|genreuk/gp/product/1510704361?ie=Humour|summaryUTF8&tag= George Gordon Wentworth (1946thebookbag-2011) lived 21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1510704361]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Forever After: a humdrum lifedark comedy by David Jester]]=== [[image:4star. He was a barely adequate teacher in jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fasntasy]] Michael Holland is a fairly world renowned independent school in Kent cocky and brash young man who dies and kept a copious diary gets made the offer of his quotidian existencelifetime; immortality. Most of what he recorded was dross. However, amongst all We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the utterly uninteresting tailings of his life there were some nuggets records department) as they grapple with their long lives and grains finding a clean surface to catch the attentionsit on in their flat. Author Tony Stuart has created these amusing anecdotes, panning them out over twenty six episodes which give us the best of Wentworth – [[Forever After: a dark comedy gold. From losing all the pupils in his charge on a school trip to being arrested on suspicion of terrorism; from waking up in bed between the married couple the morning after their wedding, to destroying a ski runby David Jester|Full Review]] <!-- Stibbe -->|-| style="width: 10%; from appearing fullvertical-frontal naked in a sheepalign: top; text-farmers' gazette to triggering an air-sea rescuealign: center; Wentworth was, blinkered and befuddled, the subject – of these and so many more unlikely but highly amusing events"|[[image:Stibbe_Xmas.jpg|left|amazonuklink=<amazonuk>1524634441<https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/amazonuk>}}0241309824?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0241309824]]{{newreview|author=Graham Fulbright|titlestyle=Driving Mad"vertical-align: Maniacs, Morons and the Advanced Motorist's Clubtop; text-align: left;"||rating=3==[[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe]]=== [[image:4.5star.5jpg|genrelink=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|summary=I passed my driving test when John F Kennedy was in Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Christmas – the White House and I've recently had time of traditional trauma. You only have to reapply think about the turkey for my driving licence having achieved that – once upon a venerable age. When I started driving time it was leaving it sat on the roads were kinderdownstairs loo to defrost overnight, more forgiving places and if that failed the hair- or put another way, the idiots were fewer and further betweendryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. I donNowadays it's all having to make sure it't know how long Graham Fulbright has been driving, s suitably free-range and organic – but he certainly knows his motoring morons not too organic that you can go and in ''Driving Mad'' he brings us a fictional sample of their eccentricities. Wellvisit it, I'm pretty certain that they're fictional - but these days you never knowand get too friendly with it to want to eat it.Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783062584</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Mario Giordano|title=Auntie Poldi It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the Sicilian Lions|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Poldi had not thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long been widowed when she decided to move from Bavaria to Sicily with -hand as a child, and as for the intention makers of drinking herself to death. She couldMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of course, have done this in Germany, but she felt that a sea view was essential. Once there, new friends, family already resident on the island and the corpse of a young man, his face blown off year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by a shotgun, whom she found on the local beach, intervened to give her life some meaningNina Stibbe|Full Review]] <!-- Doescher -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Doescher_Will. For a while she was a suspect, but that (and her wig) were no obstacle to her falling for Commissario Vito Montana who was assigned to investigate the casejpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co. Assisting him (or having him assist her) came naturally to Poldi and before long there was an investigative and personal partnership. At least so far as Poldi was concerned.|amazonukuk/gp/product/159474985X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=<amazonuk>1908524693</amazonuk>159474985X]]}}{{newreview|authorstyle= Grady Hendrix|title"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|= My Best Friend==[[William Shakespeare's Exorcism|ratingthe Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]=== 5|genre= Horror[[image:4.5star.jpg|summarylink=1988, Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrongCategory:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], Gretchen begins to act...different. She's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] A long time their story reaches its terrifying conclusionago, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by in a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the devil?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748624</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kevin MacNeil|title=cinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Brilliant and Forever|rating= 3.5|genre= Humour|summary= You know sometimes when someone tells a jokeForce Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anew, everyone else laughsreturning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurts. And if you'need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're sat there wondering what was so funny?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973376</amazonuk>on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good… [[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]]}}{{newreview<!-- Goss -->|author= Christopher Fowler-|titlestyle= Bryant and May"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: Strange Tidecenter;"|[[image:Goss_600.jpg|ratingleft|link= 3https://www.amazon.co.5uk/gp/product/1785942719?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785942719]]  |genrestyle= Crime"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||summary= The thirteenth outing for Bryant and May is looking very much like it will be their last==[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies]]=== [[image:4. Arthur Bryant is on compassionate leave whilst tests are continuing, which are likely to confirm that he is suffering from Alzheimer's5star. His condition is worsening almost by the day, memory lapses are morphing into full-scale hallucinations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523422</amazonuk>jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}}{{newreviewStar Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse|author=Kevin Smith|title=The Voyage of the DolphinChildren's Rhymes and Verse]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|rating=5Humour]]|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Dublin 1916: Among Consider the unrest Doctor. Just how many birthday and anti-British feeling worsened by the threat of conscription into a war seen as nothing Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to do keep in touch with the Irish, Trinity College faculty has other distractions. They'd like even half of his companions? He would certainly need a trophy; the skeleton few novelty gifts for some of an Irish 'giant' to be precise. The only glitch is them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the main trophy contender, Bernard MacNeill's skeleton, is somewhere difficult to access life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and all seasoned explorers are otherwise engagedenemies. There may be hope though. They turn As luck would have it, he has the space in his TARDIS to Fitzmauricestock up in advance, a student not good enough for anything else. Fitzmaurice agrees, picking his friends Crozier and Rafferty so my advice to go with him. So… ''Gentlemen– sorry, lace up your strongest boots her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and pack your warmest underwear – weget himself ready. And if you're all off to the bloody Arctic!'' Whether battle cry or epitaphworking on a shorter timescale, three men and with a dog… shorter lifespan, and an iguana… are going anywaythinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same.[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124826</amazonuk!-- Ingram -->|amazonus-| style=<amazonus>1910124826<"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Ingram_Kammie.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/amazonus>1785451995?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785451995]]}}{{newreview|authorstyle=Tony Hawks"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||title=Once Upon a Time in the West… Country|rating=3=[[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram]]===|genre=Travel[[image:4star.jpg|summarylink=I have often complained in a jokey voice to my partner about life in the sticksCategory:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Pets|Pets]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] It was something of a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and the way she moved her cocker spaniel Kammie. You see, Annie knows something which has been self-evident to me from an inner-city flat to slumming it in the suburbs for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with fewer busses, no takeaways within walking-humans and-keeping-not just on a level of food-hot distance!, and no 'Polish' shops for a can of beer whenever you fancy onewalk! or play!. Things are different with Tony HawksYou do require extensive training to become fluent, as here he has purposefully decided but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to up sticks from London teach you and all you have to Somewhere, Devon – a tiny village where the people who built their own homes decades ago still live in them, where slugs are a lot more of a problem for do is listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the wannabe lettuce-grower than they are for the metropolitan commuter, and where village halls pair have the power allowed us to turn you into both a Pol Pot dictator if you get on share some of their committee and into a quivering, bruiseconversations. [[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram|Full Review]] <!-- Harris -->|-inducing wreck if you're the wrong gender at a Zumba class…|amazonukstyle=<amazonuk>1444794809</amazonuk>"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|}}[[image:Harris_Glass.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908943823/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]{{newreview|author=Marian Keyes|titlestyle=Making It Up As I Go Along"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||rating=4==[[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris]]=== [[image:3star.5jpg|genrelink=EntertainmentCategory:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|summary=Oh, how the book reviewing gods like to giveCrime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Teenager Liam Glass is mugged and equally like to take awaystabbed yards from his Camden flat. Here before me is a brandAs the boy lies comatose, spanking new collection of journalism by desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles for the wonderful Marian Keyes – but it's inside scoop, tired police officer Andy Rockham searches for a proof copymissing tape, so there's no photo of the author. Even if over the years I have stopped reading harried politician Jamila Hasan fights for re-election, distraught mother Katrina Glass waits by her novelsson, I have always turned to and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself in the wrong place at the author picture to remind myself such sights exist in this worldwrong time. Himself is We follow this host of ensemble characters in a lucky manbleak, for surekaleidoscopic satire of modern media. But beyond sounding like a letch, what can I say about this – the beauty's third large dose [[The Breaking of essays, web columns and other journalism? I can start with agreeing that I am not the target audience, but it's easy enough to see from these pages exactly what the target is. So much like that test you do – you know the one, that formulates decisions about the age and commonality of all things in space to come up with how many billions of planets are likely to have alien life on – you can narrow things down quite readily here, and still come up with a huge numberLiam Glass by Charles Harris|Full Review]] <!-- LENTE -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Lente_10.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690222/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  |amazonukstyle=<amazonuk>0718182529</amazonuk>"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|}}{{newreview|author= Jean-Yves Ferri|title= Asterix and the Missing Scroll (Album 36)|rating= 5[[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente]]===|genre= For Sharing[[image:4star.jpg|summarylink=Asterix is those rarest of book series; one designed for kids which is actually even funnier when you Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Nine comedians are an adult. I used invited to love Asterix as a childremote Caribbean island under the guise of working with Dustin Walker, but now that I reread them I can't help but wonder whya comedic legend. Each fits neatly into one of the archetypal comic stereotypes: Steve, because they are so full of hilarious jokes that I definitely wouldn't have understood when I was younger. I laughed loud and hard to myself twice within the first two pages of Asterix and the Missing Scrollwashed-up has-been who has fallen far from his early days; Zoe, the rising female star with a new stand-up special coming soon; Dante, so I'd definitely say that this was who went from being a hit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1510100458</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Spadge Whittaker|title=Braver Than Britainkid on the streets to the hardest working road comic in the business; Oliver, Occasionally|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=In which Spadge researches Britainthe child-like prop comic who can's top ten fears and faces them all over t get any respect from his peers; Janet, the insult comic who is past her prime; TJ, the course of nightly variety show host with a year. We're quite a fearful societyreputation for harassing his female colleagues and guest acts; Ruby, you know. And the things we fear most areultra-feminist YouTuber and Blogger with a chip on her shoulder; and William, in order: heights (acrophobia)whose redneck character ''Billy the Contractor'' is a far cry from his real personality as a posh millionaire. Of course, snakes (ophidiophobia), public speaking (glossophobia)all nine agree because ''when God almighty walks down on a beam of light and asks for your help, spiders (arachnophobia), small spaces (claustrophobia), mice (musophobia), needles (trypanophobia), flying (pteromerhanophobia), crowds (agoraphobia) and clowns (coulrophobia).what the hell else are you going to say?'' [[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993429904</amazonuk!-- Scott -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= Mike Bullen"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|title= Trust[[image:Scott_Eliz.jpg|ratinglink= 4http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788037006/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  |genrestyle= General Fiction"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||summary= Greg and Amanda are happy==[[Elizabeth, William... Unmarried, but together thirteen years and with two young daughters, they are very much in loveMe by S Lynn Scott]]=== [[image:4. Dan and Sarah aren't so fortunate5star. Their marriage jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Ally is going through the motionsan ordinary woman with teenage children, a husband and they're staying together for a job. Then comes the sake day when ordinariness flies out of their troubled teenage sonthe window. Following It's not a business conference away from home, one bad decision sends a happy couple into turmoil, and turns an unhappy couple into lovecoincidence that it's young dream. As secrets the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth I in the pantry and betrayals threaten to send both relationships out the Bard of control, thereAvon in her bath. What's only one thing she going to do? Well, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about that can keep everything from falling apart: Trust! [[Elizabeth, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk!-- Rodford -->0751559253</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Dan Rhodes-|titlestyle=When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Rodford_Surgeon.jpg|ratinglink=4http://www.amazon.co.5uk/dp/178565005X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  |genrestyle=General Fiction"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||summary= Two people are on a train on their way to, of all things, a WI meeting where the ladies of All Bottoms will be lectured on the non-existence of God==[[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford]]=== [[image:4star. One jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] In the second instalment of the two people is Professor Richard Dawkinsthis series, rampant atheist, hectoring scientist chappie, and all-round devotee of Private Investigator George Kocharyan has been hired by a well-known local man to track down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraith, a world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke'Deal or No Deal''. The other is Smees Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, has had his monobriefcase stolen by his live-named assistantin domestic servant, amanuensis or 'male secretary'Aurora. Smee will come to According to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the fore when the weather sets in and the train journey has hospital. George agrees to be abandoned some way short of its ultimate destination, Upper Bottom. Instead look into the pair fetch up at the isolated yet friendly community of Market Hortontheft, assuming it will be a relatively easy and the only option for accommodation is taken straightforward case – yeslittle does he know, the died-in-the-wool non-believer has he's about to be housed by enter a retired vicar world of deceit and his wifedysfunction. This clash of titanic opinions, peppered with social faux pas aplenty will provide for a particularly English kind of farcical comedy, but one with the legs to go as far as any other Good Books have reached in the past…[[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709018</amazonuk!-- Jordan -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle=Rob Temple"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jordan_Tiny.jpg|titlelink=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1760293814/ref=nosim?tag=Very British Problems Abroadthebookbag-21]]|rating=4|genre=Humour|summarystyle=Meet"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Our Tiny, if you havenUseless Hearts by Toni Jordan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women't alreadys Fiction]], the phenomenon of the Very British Problem. In this format they[[:Category:Humour|Humour]] As predicted by Caroline and Janice's mother on Caroline and Henry're in pithy little comments (ofs wedding day, oohtheir marriage is over, about 140 characters in length, for some reason…) albeit 15 years and detail the minor things in life that we like nothing more two daughters further along than to inflate to a major factor of lifepredicted. They can involve mannersIndeed, staring this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice to be babysitting at things until they mend themselves, hitting things ditto, or Caroline's house. There's the fact that nobody apart from you split and I know how to queue properly. And if the idea hits awkwardness of the girls' schoolteacher being the world outside our shores, then – well, you certainly have other woman for a book full of content regarding our attitude and ineptitude abroadstart.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751558494</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Fraser McAlpine|title=Stuff Brits LikeThen there's that mistaken identity moment involving the neighbours. At least Janice is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec. She still dreams of him, yes, but it's so over! Just as well really… guess who's at the door? [[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan|rating=4Full Review]] <!-- Taylor -->|genre=Humour-|summarystyle= With over 100 chapters on different aspects of Britain and Britishness, this book is both fascinating and hilarious"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Taylor_Scilly. Just looking at the list of subjects is enough to produce a sardonic twist of that stiff upper lipjpg|link=http: the chapters cover topics that range from offal to curry, from pedantry to banter, from conkers to rugby//www.amazon.co. There may be many chapters but this is no academic tome uk/dp/178475515X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text- each chapter is just two to three pages long, each is written with endearing affection, each is easy and satisfying - and quirkily funny - to read.align: left;"||amazonuk=<amazonuk>1857886348</amazonuk>==[[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor]]===}}[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{newreview{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Humour|author= John SamuelHumour]] |title= What I Tell You in Meet the Dark|rating= 3Isles of Scilly.5|genre= Humour|summary=A man (I know they should be called Will is fighting fiercely against corruption that – desperate to expose his company's dodgy dealings the author provides a handy guide to the press. Overcome with doubt etiquette of their name, their nature and fearlocation, he goes to kill himselfetc. But) For our more distant readers, at they're several chunks of granite rock out in the exact moment he attaches his noose to the back of the doorAtlantic, he where Cornwall is saved. By a curious housemate or a concerned girlfriend? Nopointing, with just 2, by an Angel200 permanent residents. Not the white-feathered guardian Angel you may expect, but one who wishes to help Will achieve his endsThey're big on tourism, and so possess big on growing flowers in the body of tropical climate the hapless Will in order to finish what he started. It goes without saying that Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the Angel weather is hoping things go better than they did with the last guy he possessed – bad enough to turn any car to a hapless young man from Galilee called Jesus…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715650505</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= John Niven|title= The Sunshine Cruise Company|rating= 4.5|genre= Humour|summary= Susan Frobisher rust bucket within years. They're so wee, and Julie Wickham live in so idyllic-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a small Dorset townpolice presence. Friends since school, they live fairly uneventful lives – Susan has a lovely house and a lengthy marriage to accountant Barry, whereas Julie But there is doing slightly less well – living in a council flat and at least two working in an old people's homeat any one time. When Barry is found dead trussed up And one of them in a sex dungeon, it transpires that he recent years has been leading a hidden life for yearsColin Taylor, and who has done his expensive fetishes lead to the bank moving official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought to take Susan's homelife all the whimsical comedy of his work. Struck by both desperation and a sense [[The Life of injustice, Sue and Julie conspire to rob a bank, taking along their friend Jill – a devout Christian conflicted due to lack of money and a terminally ill grandson, and Ethel – a foul mouthed resident of the nursing home longing for adventure.|amazonuk=<amazonukScilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor|Full Review]] <!-- Lloyd -->0434023183</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Marie Phillips-|titlestyle=The Table Of Less Valued Knights|rating"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Lloyd_Twas.jpg|link=4http://www.amazon.co.5uk/dp/1472125118/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  |genrestyle=Fantasy"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||summary=Sir Humphrey has been demoted from King Arthur==[['s Round Table to Twas the Table of Lesser Valued KnightsFight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees]]=== [[image:3. The only way to get his comfier seat back is to redeem himself via a quest5star. Therefore when damsel Elaine seeks help to find her kidnapped fiancé, Humphrey jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] It's Christmas Eve and his ward, the teenage giant Conrad, eagerly set forthMum has arranged everything. Meanwhile in All she now has to do is await the kingdom arrival of Tuft, new Queen Martha has run away after a disastrous wedding to… a… well… disastrous Prince Edwinthe relatives and the food shopping delivery. She may not realise it yet, but she too will Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have a job for Humphrey!the potential to ruin everything. [['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555875</amazonuk!-- Phinn -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle=Tim Flannery"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|title=The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish[[image:Phinn_Virgin.jpg|rating=3left|genrelink=Historical Fictionhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444779400/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] |summarystyle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===Meet Archie Meek. He[[The Virgin Mary's about to leave the Venus Islands, where he's lived for the last five yearsGot Nits by Gervase Phinn]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], and return to Sydney, where he'll take his office [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]] Christmas in our house is the museum time we tend to get on a plane and fill it with all head to either sun or snow, anywhere that is far, far away from the cultural artefacts he's found and wildlife he's plucked or pickled. That's not madness at home, last minute dashes to ignore the fact he'll count as something quite alien himself, with his filled-out frameshops on Christmas Eve, nearly all-over suntan and totemic tattoofood cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, in amongst other changes to his bodynor a mere 36 hours. But what's this? When he gets I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, backwhen it was magical, he finds one of and back when you knew exactly what the main Venus Islands artefacts that caused him to go there in the first place, a huge, macabre ceremonial fetish mask, purloined as corporate artworkseason would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. And some This book is an anthology of the curators he wishes those moments, and it took me right back to work alongside have vanished. Is the weird society wonder of the museum he's returning to, perchance, even weirder, stranger and more violent than the cannibalistic society heChristmas as a child. [[The Virgin Mary's waving farewell to?Got Nits by Gervase Phinn|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922079308</amazonuk>Full Review]]}}{{newreview|author=Roman Dirge|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 <!-- DO NOT prefer your children to see? If the answer to the second question is 'none – yet', scratch that last word. The title piece in this collection is, by the author's own admission, his imagining of the Joseph Merrick (the 'Elephant Man') of the feline world – who struggles to sneak up behind a mouse when the shadow of his head is a total giveaway, and who can hardly even eat with dignity as bending down to his bowl would break his neck. If that's too dark or oddball for you, try the second major piece, which has a most revealing foreword – ''Dedicated to a certain girl… I hope your life is filled with wonderful accomplishments, love and all the magic you desire… - But I hope your death is slow and horrible.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782762876</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Val Hennessy|title=Not Far From Dreamland|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Ronald Tonks has reached that stage in life which I call upper middle age: you've qualified for your pension but not yet got to the free television licence barrier. What Ronald ''has'' got is a roof that leaks (there's good reason why his home is called 'the shack'), a dog who is going bald (in patches) and money that's in very short supply. On the plus side he has friends, mostly platonic and usually in much the same boat as Ronald. But are they downhearted? Well, they are occasionally, but mostly they're generously optimistic and out to make the most of what they've got, usually bought from charity shops and jumble sales. ''Not Far From Dreamland'' is the story of a year (2012) in the life of Ronald Tonks, his friends and relatives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373874</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Harry Harrison|title=Bill, the Galactic Hero|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Meet Bill. He's a simple farmer – well, he ''is'' taking a correspondence course in being a Technical Fertiliser Operator – but fate has something else in store. And so does the mechanised, technological, industrial military, which needs several billion grunts to fight the Chingers, in mankind's first inter-galactic war. Still, at least he gets medals just for signing up. After that it's all downhill, and the likes of Petty Chief Officer Deathwish Drang can only make that a straight line down. Really, what hope is there?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320531X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ian Doescher|title=William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary= Join us, good gentles, for a merry reimagining of `Star Wars Episode 1' as only Shakespeare could have written it. 'Tis a true Shakespearean drama, filled with sword fights, soliloquies and doomed romance…all in glorious iambic pentameter and coupled with gorgeous illustrations. Hold on to your midichlorians: The plays the thing, wherein you'll catch the rise of Anakin!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748063</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Attaboy|title=The Book of Hugs|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=A hug's a hug, OK? You either do, or you don't. Some people might be a little more enthusiastic about the process whilst others are more elegant in the execution of the hug, but basically you just get on and do it and then forget about it, right?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0867197978</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Christopher Fowler|title= Bryant and May – The Burning Man|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) has a new set of overlords. For reasons that were explored in the previous couple of outings they have been transferred 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 crime, because no-one lives there anymore and the people who work there are, by and large, either too rich to need to steal, or too smart to have to do so on the streets.REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857522043</amazonuk>}}