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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= David JesterStephen Clarke|title= Forever After: a dark comedyThe Spy Who Inspired Me|rating= 4|genre= ParanormalGeneral Fiction|summary= Michael Holland This is a cocky and brash young spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. But it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dies dresses well and gets made 'likes the offer ladies' and who works for the secret service, but in the planning side of his lifetime; immortalitythings more than the active service. We follow Michael, Lemming finds himself put on a grim reaper and his friends Chip (mission with a stoner tooth fairy) female spy called Margaux, and Naff (the pair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a stoner desperate mission to unearth traitors in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives resistance network, and finding a clean surface Lemming desperately trying to sit on in their flat.keep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1510704361</amazonuk>2952163855

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nina StibbeAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=An Almost Perfect ChristmasKokoschka's Doll|rating=42.5|genre=Humour Literary Fiction|summary=Christmas – Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the time get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of traditional traumait. You only have I found things to think about potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the turkey for that – once upon middle on darker stock paper, a time it chapter whose number was leaving it sat on in the downstairs loo to defrost overnight20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best betso on. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that you can go and visit what little I knew of itmentioned, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. ItBut you'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 ve seen the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade star rating that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a childcomes with this review, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – wellcan tell that if love was on these pages, did they even try and sell it was not actually caused by them any other time of the year. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241309824</amazonuk>1529402697

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian DoescherB08KKQ85FN|title=William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the SeventhBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|rating=4.5|genre=Science FictionShort Stories|summary=A long time ago, ''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in a galaxy far awaylipstick, there was an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a man called William Shakespearepampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, who was able more to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foulthe point, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed about to discover the cinematic version real world of bus timetables and paying his original stage play for own gas bills.'' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Force Doth AwakenAmbassador'', s Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and people keeping it settled in the family til it hurtsRome. And if you need further encouragementWell 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts has no intention of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>159474985X</amazonuk>slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Goss and Russell T DaviesB08GFSK2WZ|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)The Karma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd|rating=4.5|genre=ChildrenWomen's Rhymes and Verse Fiction|summary=Consider the DoctorGeorge Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and single. Just how many birthday She's not had sex for eight months and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep she's stuck in touch with even half the karma trap: an awful lot of his companions? He would certainly need bad luck is being visited on her and she has a few novelty gifts real talent for some attracting drama. Her life's chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the shower by putting something down at the bottom of themthe stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her, saystark naked, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate staring at the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemiespervy postman. As luck would have it, he She only has the space in his TARDIS to stock take her mother's dog out for a walk for her to end up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, with dog poo spattered across her – would be to pop along to his local Earthface -based book emporium and get himself readya photo being taken by someone who shares it around the office. And if you}} {{Frontpage|author=David C Mason|title=Pandora're working on s Gardener|rating=3|genre=Crime|summary= John Cranston is a shorter timescalegardener, with although what he did before he became a shorter lifespangardener, he claims, and thinking perhaps is classified. That is just one gift season ahead, as well my advice because he is pretty much about to be caught up in a criminal / spy / terrorist plot, where only he can save the sameday.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785942719</amazonuk>0956180523

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie IngramJester_Forever|title=Conversations with KammieForever After: a dark comedy|author=David Jester

|genre=PetsHorror|summary=It was something Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram grim reaper and her cocker spaniel Kammie. You seehis friends, Annie knows something which has been self-evident to me for Chip (a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans stoner tooth fairy) and not just on Naff (a level of ''food!'', ''walk!'' or ''play!''. You do require extensive training to become fluent, but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their time to teach you long lives and all you have finding a clean surface to do is listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the pair have allowed us to share some of sit on in their conversationsflat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785451995</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Charles Harris1683691172|title= The Breaking of Liam GlassWilliam Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Ian Doescher|rating= 32.5|genre=CrimeHumour|summary= A flawed but reasonably entertaining swipe at modern medialong time ago, in a galaxy far away, all the Star Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, and the marriage seemed a perfectly suitable one. ThereSo much so – so easily did the plots and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, and behave with Shakespearean stage directions – that the producers tried again, with [[William Shakespeare's plenty here Get Thee Back to like, and plenty not the Future! by Ian Doescher|Back tothe Future]] no less. And that worked. But good structure and scramjet pace keep simultaneously they put a real test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was transcribed into the original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the brand new, yet oh so ancient, dressing. Here was the true challenge – would I manage to enjoy this one flying to , based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those shiny gold stars for letting the final page.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908943823</amazonuk>game away…

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fred Van Lente168369094X|title= Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery|rating= 4|genre= Humour|summary= Nine comedians are invited to a remote Caribbean island under the guise of working with Dustin Walker, a comedic legend. Each fits neatly into one of the archetypal comic stereotypes: Steve, the washed-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, who went from being a kid on the streets to the 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 reputation for harassing his female colleagues and guest acts; Ruby, the ultra-feminist YouTuber and Blogger with a chip on her shoulder; and William, whose redneck character Shakespeare''Billy s Get Thee Back to the Contractor'' is a far 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>1594749744</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFuture!|author=S Lynn Scott|title=Elizabeth, William... and MeIan Doescher

|summary=Ally is an ordinary woman with teenage childrenA long time ago, in a husband publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the story of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and styles in such a jobclever way they seemed perfectly suited. Then comes It was then duly repeated for all the day when ordinariness flies out of other films in the window. It's not a coincidence that itmain Star Wars cycle, and clearly someone's buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, the title of which became public knowledge the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth before I in the pantry and the Bard of Avon in her bathwrite. What's she going to do? Well, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about that!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1788037006</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= E G Rodford|title= The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2|rating= 4|genre= Crime |summary=In the second instalment of this serieshiatus, however, Private Investigator George Kocharyan the effort has been hired by a well-known local man made to track down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraithsee if the same shtick works with other texts, a world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, has had his briefcase stolen by his live-and to riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in domestic servant, Auroraiambs. According And could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to Galbraiththe Future, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient with its tales of his at the hospital. George agrees to look into the thefttime travel, assuming it will be a relatively easy and straightforward case – little does he knowbullying, he's about to enter a world of deceit and dysfunction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178565005X<parent/amazonuk>child strife like no other?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toni Jordan1473669065|title=Our Tiny, Useless HeartsQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel|author=Ruth Hogan

|genre=Women's FictionHumour|summary=As predicted by Caroline and Janice's Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding daylife after her death. Whilst there, their marriage is overshe returns to the Paradise hotel, albeit 15 years a haven for eccentrics and two daughters further along than predictedmisfits. IndeedA place where people can be themselves, this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice to be babysitting at Caroline's house. There's the split and the awkwardness let go of the girls' schoolteacher being the other woman thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a startchild, from this place of wonder. Then there's that mistaken identity moment involving With the neighbours. At least Janice is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec. She still dreams help of himQueenie Malone, yescaring, but it's so over! Just as well really… guess who's at and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the door?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760293814</amazonuk>tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin Taylor1683690346|title=The Life of a Scilly SergeantCon Artist|author=Fred Van Lente|rating=4.5|genre=TravelHumour|summary=Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – the author provides Comic-Cons are a handy guide to the etiquette place of their namewonder and sanctuary for many people, their nature and locationwhen Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, etc.) For our more distant readershe's looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, they're several chunks plus the chance of granite rock out in the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointingmaybe, just maybe reuniting with just 2,200 permanent residentshis ex. They're big on tourismHowever, and big on growing flowers in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather when his rival is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. They're so wee, and so idyllic-seemingfound dead, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a police presence. But there Mike is – at least two working at any one time. And one forced to navigate every dark corner of them the con in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done order to clear his official duty name – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to life all the whimsical comedy of zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his workinnocence and, in doing so, may just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178475515X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees1473669588|title='Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A ParodyFalling Short|author=Lex Coulton|rating=3.54

|summary=ItLex Coulton's Christmas Eve debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and Mum has arranged everythingrelationships. All she now The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has to do recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleague and is await grappling with the arrival increasingly eccentric behaviour of the relatives and the food shopping deliveryher mother. Little does Mum know This relationship is complicated by the fact that those two elements alone have the potential to ruin everythingFrances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472125118</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryan North1683690133|title=Romeo My Lady's Choosing|author=Kitty Curran and/or JulietLarissa Zageris|rating=3.54

|summary=For all those who think tragedy plots You are too restricted a lass of twenty-eight. Plucky, penniless and prescribed, read in Regency-era London the race is onto find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. In these pages Along your journey, you too will see that Romeo had lots of options en route 'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to hitting the bottlesave you from a life alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. LikewiseWhen it comes to suitors though, she could you'll have turned away from her predestined path at no end of junctures. And to what result? Wellmake the ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, happy marriage rugged and a kid called Bencaring Captain Angus MacTaggart, because or the leads have just banged people's heads together mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and stopped ancient Egyptian artefacts along the quarrellingway, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running it's clear this isn't going to be an establishment curing murderous women, such as a Lady M (her)easy decision... |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508536</amazonuk>

{{Frontpage<!-- Phinn -->|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas[[image:Phinn_Virgin.jpg|lefttitle=An Almost Perfect Christmas|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1444779400?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASINauthor=1444779400]]Nina Stibbe ==|rating=[[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg5|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]] summary=Christmas in our house is – the time we tend of traditional trauma. You only have to get think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on a plane and head to either sun or snow, anywhere that is far, far away from the madness at home, last minute dashes downstairs loo to the shops on Christmas Evedefrost overnight, and food cupboard stockpiles if that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, nor a mere 36 hours. But I do remember failed the feeling of Christmas when I hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was younger, back when your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it was magical, 's suitably free-range and back when organic – but not too organic that you knew exactly what the season would bring with carol concerts can go and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of those momentsvisit it, and get too friendly with it took me right back to the wonder want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of Christmas as course also a childtime of great boons. [[The Virgin MaryIt's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn|Full Review]]<br> {{newreview|author= Kieran Crowley|title= Shoot|rating= 4|genre= Crime|summary= I make something of cash in hand for a habit lot of being late to discover good writersplump people who can hire red suits and beards, in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with us. The result is that what is billed as ''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' it was always a godsend for postmen with all the optimism of there being more thank-you letters to come has the poignancy of being, if not the last of aunties you saw twice a short line, certainly one of decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a few. F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" is, technicallychild, a columnist. He's been sacked by one New York newspaper and is writing a weekly column as 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, you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in some genuine journalism as makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well: front page, seat did they even try and sell them any other time of your pants stuff. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783296518</amazonuk>the year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gray JolliffeDoescher_Will|title=The First Ever ChristmasWilliam Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: And Who to BlameStar Wars Part the Seventh|author=Ian Doescher|rating=4.5

|summary=If I tell you A long time ago, in a secretgalaxy far away, will you promise not to tell anyone? Wellthere was a man called William Shakespeare, I really don't like Christmas: it's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down to the day itself, I look forward who was able to that point when I can say that it's all over for another year. It's all too commercialised for me, with create a coating series of faux religiondramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. I've never found it in You may or may not have noticed the least funny - that is, until I found Gray Jolliffecinematic version of his original stage play for 's 'The Force Doth Awaken'The First Ever Christmas: And Who's , but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to Blame''-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurts. AmazinglyAnd if you need further encouragement, Idon'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe either, but It forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we'm a convert re on to his skills part seven – surely making this over twice as a cartoonist (if not to the idea of Christmas) after reading this collection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445663503</amazonuk>good…

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan PughGoss_600|title=Pugh's New Year's ResolutionsDoctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)|author=James Goss and Russell T Davies

|summary=If there's one thing that's for certain, it's that Consider the world is changingDoctor. We're dating onlineJust how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, we're communicating were he to keep in ways 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 make email seem redundant, pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and when we're shopping we just tell a website where that of some of his friends and when enemies. As luck would have it can be delivered, and how much leeway they have he has the space in his TARDIS to swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring us. But those changes are also supposed stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be affecting us – we're supposed to use a smart watch pop along to tell us his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if weyou're moving or notworking on a shorter timescale, we have to keep up with the latest fadsa shorter lifespan, and we're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eatsame.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Luke RhinehartIngram_Kammie|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>}}{{newreviewConversations with Kammie|author=Rod Green|title=Only Fools and Horses: The Peckham ArchivesAnnie Ingram

|genre=Entertainment Humour|summary=We are in the world It was something of one of the country's most famous a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and well-loved sitcoms – even if it was sort-of killed off for Christmas 2003her cocker spaniel Kammie. YesYou see, there have Annie knows something which has been specials since, self-evident to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans and more repeats not just on a level of food! walk! or play!. You do require extensive training to clog up the BBC schedules than is really pukkabecome fluent, but very few people failed most dogs will be perfectly willing to succumb give their time to its charms at one time or another. I'm sure there teach you and all you have been books before now celebrating the stony-faced reception of ''that'' drop through the open bar hatch, and ''that'' chandelier scene, but this to do is much more meatylisten. Purporting to be Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the family archives, found dumped in Nelson Mandela House, the documents here were passed from pillar pair have allowed us to post, from one council worker in a department with a clumsy acronym to another, from them to the police – and now here they are being published for share some of their social history worthconversations. Will enough readers find them of worth, as the series quietly celebrates its 35th birthday?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849909245</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Mara WilsonHarris_Glass|title= Where Am I Now?: True Stories The Breaking of Girlhood and Accidental FameLiam Glass|author=Charles Harris|rating= 53|genre= AutobiographyHumour|summary= Mara Wilson has always felt a little young Teenager Liam Glass is mugged and a little out of place: as the only child on a film set full of adults, stabbed yards from his Camden flat. As the first daughter in a house full of boysboy lies comatose, desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles for the sole clinically depressed member of a cheerleading squadinside scoop, tired police officer Andy Rockham searches for a valley girl in New York and a neurotic in Californiamissing tape, and an adult the world still remembers as a little girl. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex on the set of ''Melrose Placeharried politician Jamila Hasan fights for re-election,'' to losing her distraught mother at a young age, to getting Katrina Glass waits by her first kiss (or was it kisses?) on a celebrity canoe tripson, to not being cute enough to make it and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself in Hollywood, these essays tell the story wrong place at the wrong time. We follow this host of one young woman's journey from accidental fame to relative obscurity, but also illuminate ensemble characters in a universal struggle: learning to accept yourselfbleak, and figuring out who you are and where you belongkaleidoscopic satire of modern media. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0143128221</amazonuk>