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[[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;"|You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[imageSorting the Priorities:1683690133.jpgAmbassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690133/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21Sorting the Priorities]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris]]=== [[image:4starwe learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador...jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] You are a lass has no intention of twenty eight. Pluckyslowing down any time soon, penniless despite being sixteen and in Regency era London the race is on to find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinsterdeaf. 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 }}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08GFSK2WZ|title=The Karma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=George Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to make the ultimate decision between witty, pretty look at - and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Cravensingle. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers She's not had sex for eight months and ancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, itshe's clear this isn't going to be stuck in the karma trap: an easy decision... [[My Ladyawful lot of bad luck is being visited on her and she has a real talent for attracting drama. Her life's Choosing chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the shower by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris|Full Review]] <!putting something down at the bottom of the stairs to absorb the water -- Jester -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jester_Foreverthen the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her, stark naked, staring at the pervy postman.jpg|left|link=https://www She only has to take her mother's dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the office.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1510704361?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1510704361]]}} {{Frontpage|author=David C Mason| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Pandora's Gardener|rating=3|genre===[[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester]]===Crime[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]John Cranston is a gardener, although what he did before he became a gardener, he claims, [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fasntasy]] Michael Holland is classified. That is just as well because he is about to be caught up in a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made criminal / spy / terrorist plot, where only he can save the offer of his lifetime; immortalityday. We follow Michael, |isbn=0956180523}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Jester_Forever|title=Forever After: a grim reaper and his friends Chip (dark comedy|author=David Jester|rating=4|genre=Horror|summary=Michael Holland is a stoner tooth fairy) cocky and Naff 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 -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1683691172| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Ian Doescher[[image:Stibbe_Xmas.jpg|left|linkrating=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241309824?ie2.5|genre=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0241309824]] Humour| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe]]=== [[image:4A long 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.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]So 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 [[:Category:Short StoriesWilliam Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher|Short StoriesBack to the Future]] Christmas – the time of traditional traumano less. You only have to think about the turkey for And that – once upon worked. But simultaneously they put a time it real test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was leaving it sat on transcribed into the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment brand new, yet oh so ancient, dressing. Here was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having the true challenge – would I manage to make sure it's suitably 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 enjoy this, based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those shiny gold stars for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all letting the game away…}}{{Frontpage|isbn=168369094X|title=William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a childFuture!|author=Ian Doescher|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=A long time ago, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – wellin a publishing house far away, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe[[:Category:Ian Doescher|Full Reviewsomeone]] <!-- Doescher -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Doescher_Willthought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the story of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and styles in such a clever way they seemed perfectly suited.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 It was then duly repeated for all the other films in the main Star Wars cycle, and clearly someone's buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, the title of which became public knowledge the day before I write. In the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part hiatus, however, the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]=== [[image:4effort has been made to see if the same shtick works with other texts, and to riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] And could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to the Future, [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] A long with its tales of time agotravel, in a galaxy far awaybullying, 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 cinematic version of his original stage play for ''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, 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 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]] <!-- 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 and Russell T Davies]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse|Children's Rhymes and Verse]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[: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 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 lifespan, and thinking 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]] <!-- Ingram -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Ingram_Kammie.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785451995?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785451995]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram]]=== [[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;"|[[image:Harris_Glass.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908943823/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-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 flat. As the boy lies comatose, desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles 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, and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself 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="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]]  | 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 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 ''Billy 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?'' [[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]] <!-- Scott -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-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 the day when ordinariness flies out of the window. It's not a coincidence that it's the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth I in the pantry and the Bard of Avon in her bath. What's she going to do? Well, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about that! [[Elizabeth, William... 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 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's Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, has had his briefcase stolen by his live-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 by E G Rodford|Full Review]] <!-- Jordan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jordan_Tiny.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1760293814/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] 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 -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Taylor_Scilly.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475515X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – the author provides a handy guide to the etiquette of their name, their nature and location, etc.) For our more distant readers, they're several chunks of granite rock out in the Atlantic, where Cornwall 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 is bad enough 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 in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought to life all the whimsical comedy of his work. [[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor|Full Review]] <!-- Lloyd -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Lloyd_Twas.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472125118/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees]]=== [[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]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]] Christmas in our house is the time we tend to get on a plane and head to either sun or snow, anywhere that is far, far away from the madness at home, last minute dashes to the shops on Christmas Eve, and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, nor a mere 36 hours. But I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, back when it was magical, and back when you knew exactly what the season would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of those moments, and it took me right back to the wonder of Christmas as a child. [[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn|Full Review]] <!-- North -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:North_Romeo.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356508536/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] For all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted and prescribed, read on. In these pages you too will see that Romeo had lots of options en route to hitting the bottle. Likewise, she could have turned away from her predestined path at no end of junctures. And to what result? Well, happy marriage and a kid called Ben, because the leads have just banged people's heads together and stopped the quarrelling, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous women, such as a Lady M (her). [[Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North|Full Review]]  <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}  {{newreview|author= Kieran Crowley|title= Shoot|rating= 4|genre= Crime|summary= I make something of a habit of being late to discover good writers, in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with us. The result is that what is billed as ''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' with all the optimism of there being more to come has the poignancy of being, if not the last of a short line, certainly one of a few. F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" is, technically, a columnist. He's been sacked by one New York newspaper and is writing a weekly column for another. I don't know much about journalism, but I'm guessing one column a week doesn't pay much as a rule…which explains why Shepherd's soap-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read the book, you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in some genuine journalism as well: front page, seat of your pants stuff. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783296518</amazonuk>and parent/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=Jonathan PughFred 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=PughMy Lady's New YearChoosing|author=Kitty 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 Resolutionsclear this isn't going to be an easy decision...}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=An Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe

|summary=If there's one thing Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that's for certain– once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, it's and if that failed the world is changinghair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. WeNowadays it're dating online, wes all having to make sure it're communicating in ways s suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that make email seem redundant, and when we're shopping we just tell a website where you can go and when visit it can be delivered, and how much leeway they have get too friendly with it to want to swap our wishes for whatever eat it . Christmas, though, is they do bring usof course also a time of great boons. But those changes are also supposed to be affecting us – weIt're supposed to use s cash in hand for a smart watch to tell us if we're moving or notlot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, we have to keep up it was always a godsend for postmen with all the latest fadsthank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and we're supposed to prick our ears up as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and take note when sell them any other time of the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Luke RhinehartDoescher_Will|title= InvasionWilliam Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh|author=Ian Doescher|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 dayA long time ago, in a galaxy far away, 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 networksthere was a man called William Shakespeare, stealing millions from banks who was able to give to otherscreate a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, they realise that Louie rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and his friends mean troubleheroines most sturdy. As Billy and You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of his family begin a roller coaster ride of fame and fortune, as well as a ranking high on the FBIoriginal stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken''s most wanted list, but here at last we get the Government soon decides that these aliens are terroristsactual script, and must be eliminated. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to see the insanity of the American political-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, economic and military systemspeople keeping it in the family til it hurts. And if you need further encouragement, they soon come to realise that the Powers that Be don't play games: they make war. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good…

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Goss_600|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)|author=Rod GreenJames Goss and Russell T Davies|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=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 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 lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Ingram_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.