Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]]__NOTOC__ {{Frontpage|author=Stephen Clarke|title=The Spy Who Inspired Me|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=This is a spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. <Or Ian Fleming. But it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the ladies' and who works for the secret service, but in the planning side of things more than the active service. Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the pair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her!|isbn=2952163855}}{{Frontpage|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Kokoschka's Doll|rating=2.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-- Remove -->go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too. But you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|isbn=1529402697}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=But Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingrating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.''

<!-- Curran -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1683690133.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690133/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] You are a lass of twenty eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency era London the race is on to find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey youdon'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes to suitors thought get many better opening sentences than that, do you'll have to make the ultimate decision between witty, pretty ? We first met His Excellency and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, itThe Ambassador's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision... Wife in [[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Larissa Zageris|Full Review]] <!-- Jester -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jester_Forever.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1510704361?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1510704361]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Forever After: a dark comedy Beagle Survive Diplomacy by David Jester]]=== [[image:4star.jpgSandra Aragona|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|ParanormalSorting the Priorities]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fasntasy]] Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat. [[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester|Full Review]] <!-- Stibbe -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Stibbe_Xmas.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241309824?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0241309824]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time we learned what it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo like to defrost overnight, and if that failed be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – Italian Government but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a the time of great boons. It's cash in hand has come for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits HE to retires and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters Sandra Aragona to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time become The Wife of the year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe|Full Review]] <!-- Doescher -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Doescher_WillFormer Ambassador.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/159474985X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=159474985X]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] A long time ago, in a 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 They have noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for ''left The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, Career and people keeping it settled in the family til it hurtsRome. And if you need further encouragement, donWell 't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular wesettled're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good… [[William Shakespeare's rather overstates the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]] <!-- Goss -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Goss_600.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785942719?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785942719]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss situation and Russell T Davies]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse|Children's Rhymes and Verse]]their dog, [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]Beagle, [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half has no intention of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemies. As luck would have it, he has the space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespanslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the samedeaf. [[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies|Full Review]]}}<!-- Ingram -->{{Frontpage|-| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|B08GFSK2WZ[[image:Ingram_Kammie.jpg|left|linktitle=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785451995?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785451995]] The Karma Trap| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram]]==author=Lisette Boyd [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Pets|Pets]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] It was something of a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and her cocker spaniel Kammie. You see, Annie knows something which has been self-evident to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans and not just on a level of food!, walk! or play!. You do require extensive training to become fluent, but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to teach you and all you have to do is listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the pair have allowed us to share some of their conversations. [[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram|Full Review]] <!-- Harris -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|4[[image:Harris_Glass.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908943823/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Women's Fiction| stylesummary="verticalGeorge Jackson is thirty-align: top; textthree years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at -align: left;"|===[[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Teenager Liam Glass is mugged and stabbed yards from his Camden flatsingle. As the boy lies comatose, desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles She's not had sex for the inside scoop, tired police officer Andy Rockham searches for a missing tape, harried politician Jamila Hasan fights for re-election, distraught mother Katrina Glass waits by her son, eight months and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself she's stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. We follow this host of ensemble characters in a bleak, kaleidoscopic satire of modern media. [[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris|Full Review]] <!-- LENTE -->|-| style="widthkarma trap: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Lente_10.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690222/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Nine comedians are invited to a remote Caribbean island under the guise an awful lot 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 bad luck is being a kid visited 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 and she has a reputation real talent for harassing his female colleagues and guest acts; Ruby, the ultra-feminist YouTuber and Blogger attracting drama. Her life's chaotic: she dealt with a chip on her shoulder; and William, whose redneck character ''Billy the Contractor'' is a far cry leak from his real personality as a posh millionaire. Of course, all nine agree because ''when God almighty walks the shower by putting something down on a beam at the bottom of light and asks for your help, what the hell else are you going stairs to say?'' [[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]] <!-- Scott -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; textabsorb the water -align: center;"|[[image:Scott_Eliz.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788037006/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Elizabeth, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Ally is an ordinary woman with teenage children, a husband and a job. Then comes then the day when ordinariness flies out of shower fell through the window. It's not a coincidence that it's the same day roof whilst she finds Queen Elizabeth I was in the pantry it and the Bard of Avon in left her bath. What's she going to do? Well, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about that! [[Elizabethstark naked, Williamstaring at the pervy postman... and Me by S Lynn Scott|Full Review]] <!-- Rodford -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Rodford_Surgeon.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178565005X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] In the second instalment of this series, Private Investigator George Kocharyan She only has been hired by a well-known local man to track down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraith, a world-famous surgeon at Cambridgetake her mother's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts dog out for a popular medical television programme, has had his briefcase stolen by his livewalk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face -in domestic servant, Aurora. According to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the hospital. George agrees to look into the theft, assuming it will be a relatively easy and straightforward case – little does he know, he's about to enter a world of deceit and dysfunction. [[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 photo being taken by E G Rodford|Full Review]] <!-- Jordan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jordan_Tinysomeone who shares it around the office.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1760293814/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}} {{Frontpage| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan]]==author=David C Mason [[image:5star.jpg|linktitle=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|WomenPandora's Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]Gardener As predicted by Caroline and Janice's mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding day, their marriage is over, albeit 15 years and two daughters further along than predicted. Indeed, this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice to be babysitting at Caroline's house. There's the split and the awkwardness of the girls' schoolteacher being the other woman for a start. Then 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|Full Review]] <!-- Taylor -->|-| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|3[[image:Taylor_Scilly.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475515X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Life of John Cranston is a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]]gardener, [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – the author provides although what he did before he became a handy guide to the etiquette of their namegardener, their nature and locationhe claims, etcis classified.) For our more distant readers, they're several chunks of granite rock out in the Atlantic, where Cornwall That is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residents. They're big on tourism, and big on growing flowers in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather as well because he is bad enough about to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. They're so wee, and so idyllic-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a police presence. But there is – at least two working at any one time. And one of them caught up in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existencecriminal / spy / terrorist plot, which has brought to life all where only he can save the whimsical comedy of his workday. [[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor|Full Review]]isbn=0956180523}}<!-- Lloyd -->|-{{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Jester_Forever[[image:Lloyd_Twas.jpg|linktitle=httpForever After://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472125118/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] a dark comedy| styleauthor="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees]]===David Jester[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] It's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged everything. All she now has to do is await the arrival of the relatives and the food shopping delivery. Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have the potential to ruin everything. [['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees|Full Review]] <!-- Phinn -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Phinn_Virgin.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444779400/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]4| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|Horror===[[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]] Christmas in our house Michael Holland is the time we tend to get on a plane cocky and head to either sun or snow, anywhere that is far, far away from brash young man who dies and gets made the madness at home, last minute dashes to the shops on Christmas Eveoffer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a monthhis friends, nor Chip (a mere 36 hours. But I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, back when it was magical, stoner tooth fairy) and back when you knew exactly what Naff (a stoner in the season would bring records department) as they grapple with carol concerts their long lives and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of those moments, and it took me right back finding a clean surface to the wonder of Christmas as a childsit on in their flat. [[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn|Full Review]]  <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryan North1683691172|title=Romeo and/or JulietWilliam Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Ian Doescher|rating=32.5

|summary=For A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, all those who think tragedy the Star Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, and the marriage seemed a perfectly suitable one. So much so – so easily did the plots are too restricted and prescribedcharacters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, read on. In these pages you too will see and behave with Shakespearean stage directions – that Romeo had lots of options en route the producers tried again, with [[William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to hitting the bottle. Likewise, she could have turned away from her predestined path at Future]] no end of juncturesless. And to what result? Well, happy marriage and that worked. But simultaneously they put a kid called Ben, because real test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was transcribed into the leads have just banged people's heads together and stopped original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the quarrellingbrand new, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous womenyet oh so ancient, such as a Lady M (her)dressing. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508536</amazonuk>Here was the true challenge – would I manage to enjoy this, based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those shiny gold stars for letting the game away…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Kieran Crowley168369094X|title= ShootWilliam Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future!|author=Ian Doescher|rating= 4.5|genre= CrimeHumour|summary= I make something of A long time ago, in a habit publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the story of being late to discover good writersStar Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and styles in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with ussuch a clever way they seemed perfectly suited. The result is that what is billed as ''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' with It was then duly repeated for all the optimism of there being more to come has other films in the poignancy of beingmain Star Wars cycle, and clearly someone's buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, if not the last title of a short line, certainly one of a fewwhich became public knowledge the day before I write. F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" isIn the hiatus, technicallyhowever, a columnist. He's the effort has been sacked by one New York newspaper made to see if the same shtick works with other texts, and is writing a weekly column for anotherto riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. 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 soapAnd could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read seeming than Back to the bookFuture, you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in some genuine journalism as well: front pagewith its tales of time travel, bullying, seat of your pants stuff. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783296518<and parent/amazonuk>child strife like no other?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gray Jolliffe1473669065|title=The First Ever Christmas: And Who to BlameQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel|author=Ruth Hogan

|summary=If I tell you a secretTilda returns to Brighton, will you promise not to tell anyone? Well, I really don't like Christmas: ittidy away the remains of her mother's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the day itselfParadise hotel, I look forward to that point when I a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can say be themselves, and let go of thoughts that it's all over for another yeartorment them elsewhere. It's all too commercialised Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for mebanishing her as a child, with a coating from this place of faux religionwonder. I've never found it in With the least funny - that ishelp of Queenie Malone, until I found Gray Jolliffe's ''The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to Blame''. Amazinglycaring, I'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe eitherand 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 archivetricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445663503</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1683690346|title=The Con Artist|author=Fred Van Lente|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Comic-Cons are a place of wonder and sanctuary for many people, and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's looking for 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 found dead, Mike is forced to navigate every dark corner of the con in order to clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, in doing so, may just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1473669588|title=Falling Short|author=Lex Coulton|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Lex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and relationships. The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleague and is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. This relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1683690133|title=My Lady's Choosing|author=Jonathan PughKitty Curran and Larissa Zageris|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=You are a lass of twenty-eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency-era London the race is on to find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to 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 life alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes to suitors though, you'll have to make the ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artefacts along the way, it's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision...}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=PughAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=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 if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's New Yearall having to make sure it's Resolutionssuitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. 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 thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Doescher_Will|title=William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh|author=Ian Doescher

|summary=If A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, therewas 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 cinematic version of his original stage play for 's one thing that's for certain, itThe Force Doth Awaken's that the world is changing. We're dating online, but here at last we're communicating get the actual script, complete with annoying-in -different-ways that make email seem redundant-to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and when we're shopping we just tell a website where and when people keeping it can be delivered, and how much leeway they have to swap our wishes for whatever in the family til it is they do bring ushurts. But those changes are also supposed to be affecting us – we're supposed to use a smart watch to tell us And if we're moving or not, we have to keep up with the latest fadsyou need further encouragement, and wedon're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when t forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what series is so popular we're supposed on to eat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885</amazonuk>part seven – surely making this over twice as good…

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Luke RhinehartGoss_600|title= InvasionDoctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)|author=James Goss and Russell T Davies|rating= 4.5|genre= Humour |summary=Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universeConsider the Doctor. And they've come Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one dayhand out each year, and were he and to keep in touch with even half of his family quickly come to love the playful alien. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networkscompanions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, stealing millions from banks to give to othersfor example, they realise whimsical books of verse that Louie pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends mean troubleand enemies. As Billy and his family begin a roller coaster ride of fame and fortuneluck would have it, as well as a ranking high on he has the FBI's most wanted listspace in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terroristsso my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and must be eliminatedget himself ready. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see the insanity of the American politicalAnd if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespan, economic and military systemsthinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, they soon come to realise that well my advice is pretty much the Powers that Be don't play games: they make warsame. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rod GreenIngram_Kammie|title=Only Fools and Horses: The Peckham ArchivesConversations with Kammie|author=Annie 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 give their time to succumb teach you and all you have to its charms at one time or anotherdo is listen. I'm sure there Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the pair have been books before now celebrating the stony-faced reception allowed us to share some of their conversations.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Harris_Glass|title=The Breaking of ''that'' drop through the open bar hatch, Liam Glass|author=Charles Harris|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=Teenager Liam Glass is mugged and ''that'' chandelier scene, but this is much more meatystabbed yards from his Camden flat. Purporting to be As the family archives, found dumped in Nelson Mandela Houseboy lies comatose, desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles for the documents here were passed from pillar to postinside scoop, from one council worker in tired police officer Andy Rockham searches for a department with a clumsy acronym to anothermissing tape, harried politician Jamila Hasan fights for re-election, distraught mother Katrina Glass waits by her son, from them to and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself in the wrong place at the police – and now here they are being published for their social history worthwrong time. Will enough readers find them We follow this host of worthensemble characters in a bleak, as the series quietly celebrates its 35th birthday?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849909245</amazonuk>kaleidoscopic satire of modern media.