Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]] __NOTOC__ <{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house!-- Remove --> The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Ingram1529153050|title=Conversations with KammieBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson

|genre=PetsHumour|summary=It was something of a Seeking some light relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and her cocker spaniel Kammie. You see, Annie knows something from the current political turmoil which has been self-evident is coming to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans seem more and not just on a level of ''food!''more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''walk!Britain'' or ''play!s Best Political Cartoons of 2022''. You do require extensive training to become fluent, but most dogs Sharp eyes 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785451995</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Charles Harris|title= The Breaking of Liam Glass|rating= 3|genre=Crime|summary= A flawed but reasonably entertaining swipe at modern media. Therenoted that we's plenty here to like, and plenty re not to. But good structure and scramjet pace keep this one flying to yet through the final page.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908943823</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Fred Van Lente|title= Ten Dead Comediansyear: A Murder Mystery|rating= the cartoons run from 4|genre= Humour|summary= Nine comedians are invited September 2021 to a remote Caribbean island under the guise of working with Dustin Walker, a comedic legend31 August 2022. 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 Who can imagine what there will be to the hardest working road comic come 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 say2023 edition?''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594749744</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=S Lynn Scott1785633074|title=Elizabeth, William... and MeStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry

|summary=Ally Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is an ordinary woman with teenage childrenrun by politicians, a husband and a job. Then comes headed by the day when ordinariness flies out of Prime minister - the window. It''primus inter pares'' (that's not a coincidence for those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that itthe ''prime''s movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth I government. We are in the pantry and privileged position of having access to the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, the man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the Bard end of Avon in her bath2020. What's she going You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to do? Well, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about that!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1788037006</amazonuk>watch.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= E G Rodford0571365884|title= The Surgeon's CaseMy Mess is a Bit of Life: George Kocharyan Mystery 2Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating= 4|genre= Crime Autobiography|summary=In the second instalment of this series, Private Investigator George Kocharyan Georgia Pritchett has always been hired by anxious, even as a well-known local man child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of life where if she had nothing to track down some missing valuablesworry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far between. Bill Galbraith, On a world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts visit to a popular medical television programmetherapist, has had his briefcase stolen by his live-in domestic servantas an adult, Aurora. According when she was completely unable to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the hospital. George agrees to look into the theft, assuming speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it will be a relatively easy down and straightforward case – little does he know, he's about to enter 'My Mess is a world Bit of deceit and dysfunctiona Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the result - or so we are given to believe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178565005X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Toni JordanJohn Boyne|title=Our Tiny, Useless HeartsThe Echo Chamber

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=As predicted by Caroline and JaniceMeet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as "one of the few television personalities over the age of fifty without a criminal record". He starts this book a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding daycarrying his child, their marriage but then his author wife is overgetting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. They have three children, albeit 15 years and two daughters further along than predicted. Indeedwho are a sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice girl who hangs around with a virtue-signalling, keyboard warrior "wokester" who wants to be babysitting at Carolinesave the world's house. There's the split homeless with out-of-date food, and a fit young lad doing the awkwardness of the girls' schoolteacher being the gay hustle thing. Add in a few other woman for a start. Then there's characters – therapists, lawyers, random transgender types – that all have two very different connections to his life, and you have something that mistaken identity moment involving suggests an almost farcical approach to the neighboursmodern world. At least Janice is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec. She still dreams of himWhat suggests the farcical approach even more, yeshowever, but it's so over! Just as well really… guess who's at is the door?fact this is bloody funny.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1760293814</amazonuk>0857526219

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Colin TaylorStephen Clarke|title=The Life of a Scilly SergeantSpy Who Inspired Me|rating=4.5|genre=TravelGeneral Fiction|summary=Meet the Isles of ScillyThis is a spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. (I know they should be But it features a man called that – the author provides a handy guide to the etiquette of their nameIan Lemming, their nature who dresses well and location, etc.) For our more distant readers, they're several chunks of granite rock out in likes the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residents. Theyladies're big on tourismand who works for the secret service, and big on growing flowers but in the tropical climate planning side of things more than the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within yearsactive service. They're so weeLemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, and so idyllic-seemingthe pair end up stranded in Normandy, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for with Margaux on a police presence. But there is – at least two working at any one time. And one of them desperate mission to unearth traitors in recent years has been Colin Taylorthe resistance network, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought and Lemming desperately trying to life all the whimsical comedy of his work.keep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178475515X</amazonuk>2952163855

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Josie Lloyd Afonso Cruz and Emlyn ReesRahul Bery (translator)|title=Kokoschka'Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parodys Doll|rating=32.5|genre=HumourLiterary Fiction|summary=It's Christmas Eve Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and Mum has arranged everythingflipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. All she now has I found things to do is await potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the arrival of middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the relatives 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on. It intrigued with the food shopping deliverysubterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too. Little does Mum know But you've seen the star rating that those two elements alone have the potential to ruin everythingcomes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472125118</amazonuk>1529402697

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryan NorthB08KKQ85FN|title=Romeo and/or JulietBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|rating=3.54|genre=HumourShort Stories|summary=For all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted and prescribed''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, read on. In these pages you too will see that Romeo had lots an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of options en route carrion crows or, more to hitting the bottle. Likewisepoint, she could have turned away from her predestined path at no end about to discover the real world of juncturesbus timetables and paying his own gas bills. And to what result'' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? Well, happy marriage We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and a kid called Ben, because we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the leads time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have just banged peopleleft The Career and settled in Rome. Well 's heads together settled' rather overstates the situation and stopped the quarrellingtheir dog, Beagle, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous womenhas no intention of slowing down any time soon, such as a Lady M (her)despite being sixteen and deaf. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508536</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gervase PhinnB08GFSK2WZ|title= The Virgin Mary's Got NitsKarma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd|rating= 4.5|genre= HumourWomen's Fiction|summary= Christmas George Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and single. She's not had sex for eight months and she's stuck in our house the karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is the time we tend to get being visited on her and she has a plane and head to either sun or snow, anywhere that is far, far away real talent for attracting drama. Her life's chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the madness shower by putting something down at home, last minute dashes the bottom of the stairs to absorb 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 water - then the shower fell through the feeling of Christmas when I roof whilst she was youngerin it and left her, back when it was magicalstark naked, and back when you knew exactly what staring at the season would bring pervy postman. She only has to take her mother's dog out for a walk for her to end up with carol concerts dog poo spattered across her face - and school nativities and Christmas partiesa photo being taken by someone who shares it around the office. This book }} {{Frontpage|author=David C Mason|title=Pandora's Gardener|rating=3|genre=Crime|summary= John Cranston is an anthology of those momentsa gardener, although what he did before he became a gardener, he claims, and it took me right back is classified. That is just as well because he is about to be caught up in a criminal / spy / terrorist plot, where only he can save the wonder of Christmas as a childday.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444779400</amazonuk>0956180523

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Kieran CrowleyJester_Forever|title= ShootForever After: a dark comedy|author=David Jester|rating= 4|genre= CrimeHorror|summary= I make something of Michael Holland is a habit cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer 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.Xhis lifetime; immortality. Shepherd mystery'' with all the optimism of there being more to come has the poignancy of beingWe follow Michael, if not the last of a short line, certainly one of a few. F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like grim reaper and his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" is, technicallyfriends, Chip (a columnist. He's been sacked by one New York newspaper stoner tooth fairy) and is writing Naff (a weekly column for another. I don't know much about journalism, but I'm guessing one column a week doesn't pay much stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a rule…which explains why Shepherd's soap-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read the book, you'll see what I mean) expects him clean surface to turn sit on in some genuine journalism as well: front page, seat of your pants stufftheir flat. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783296518</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gray Jolliffe1683691172|title=The First Ever Christmas: And Who to BlameWilliam Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Ian Doescher|rating=2.5

|summary=If I tell you A long time ago, in a secretgalaxy far away, will you promise not to tell anyone? Wellall 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 and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, and behave with Shakespearean stage directions – that the producers tried again, I really don't like Christmas: itwith [[William Shakespeare's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down Get Thee Back to the day itself, I look forward Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to the Future]] no less. And that point when I can say that it's all over for another yearworked. It's all too commercialised for me, with But simultaneously they put a coating of faux religionreal test out. A film Ican've never found it in t even really remember seeing was transcribed into the least funny - that is, until I found Gray Jolliffe's ''The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to Blame''original Elizabethan lingo. Amazingly, A cult following I'd had never encountered Gray Jolliffe eitherfollowed whatsoever was given the brand new, but yet oh so ancient, dressing. Here was the true challenge – would I'm a convert to his skills as a cartoonist (if not manage to enjoy this, based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those shiny gold stars for letting the idea of Christmas) after reading this collection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445663503</amazonuk>game away…

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Pugh168369094X|title=PughWilliam Shakespeare's New Year's ResolutionsGet Thee Back to the Future!|author=Ian Doescher

|summary=If there's one thing that's for certainA long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it's that wonderfully wacky to rewrite the world is changingstory of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and styles in such a clever way they seemed perfectly suited. We're dating online, we're communicating It was then duly repeated for all the other films in ways that make email seem redundantthe main Star Wars cycle, and when weclearly someone're shopping we just tell a website where and when it can be delivereds buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, and how much leeway they have to swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring usthe title of which became public knowledge the day before I write. But those changes are also supposed to be affecting us – we're supposed to use a smart watch In the hiatus, however, the effort has been made to tell us see if we're moving or notthe same shtick works with other texts, and to riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. And could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to keep up the Future, with the latest fadsits tales of time travel, bullying, and we're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885<parent/amazonuk>child strife like no other?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Luke Rhinehart1473669065|title= InvasionQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel|author=Ruth Hogan|rating= 4.5|genre= Humour |summary=Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And they've come Tilda returns to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one dayBrighton, and he and his family quickly come to love tidy away the playful alienremains of her mother's life after her death. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networksWhilst there, stealing millions from banks she returns to give to othersthe Paradise hotel, they realise that Louie a haven for eccentrics and his friends mean troublemisfits. As Billy A place where people can be themselves, and his family begin a roller coaster ride let go of fame and fortune, as well thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a ranking high on the FBI's most wanted listchild, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, and must be eliminatedfrom this place of wonder. Whilst With the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see the insanity of the American politicalQueenie Malone, caring, economic and military systemsgregarious, they soon come Tilda begins to realise that pick apart the Powers that Be don't play games: they make wartricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rod Green1683690346|title=Only Fools and Horses: The Peckham ArchivesCon Artist|author=Fred Van Lente

|summary= George Gordon Wentworth (1946Comic-2011) lived Cons are a humdrum life. He was a barely adequate teacher in a fairly world renowned independent school in Kent place of wonder and sanctuary for many people, and kept a copious diary of his quotidian existence. Most of what when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he recorded was dross. However's looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, amongst all plus the utterly uninteresting tailings chance of maybe, just maybe reuniting with his life there were some nuggets and grains to catch the attentionex. Author Tony Stuart has created these amusing anecdotesHowever, panning them out over twenty six episodes which give us the best of Wentworth – comedy gold. From losing all the pupils in when his charge on a school trip rival is found dead, Mike is forced to being arrested on suspicion navigate every dark corner of terrorism; from waking up the con in bed between the married couple the morning after their wedding, order to destroying a ski run; clear his name – from appearing full-frontal naked in a sheep-farmers' gazette cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to triggering an air-sea rescue; Wentworth was, blinkered zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and befuddled, the subject – of these and in doing so many more unlikely but highly amusing events, may just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524634441</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graham Fulbright1473669588|title=Driving Mad: Maniacs, Morons and the Advanced Motorist's ClubFalling Short|author=Lex Coulton|rating=3.54

|summary=I passed my driving test when John F Kennedy was in the White House and ILex Coulton've recently had to reapply for my driving licence having achieved s debut novel is a venerable age. When I started driving the roads were kinderstory about mistakes, more forgiving places - or put another wayfailures, the idiots were fewer and further betweenrelationships. I don't know how long Graham Fulbright The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has been drivingrecently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, but he certainly knows his motoring morons a work colleague and in ''Driving Mad'' he brings us a fictional sample is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of their eccentricitiesher mother. Well, I'm pretty certain This relationship is complicated by the fact that theyFrances're fictional - but these days you never know..s father disappeared at sea when she was five years old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783062584</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mario Giordano1683690133|title=Auntie Poldi My Lady's Choosing|author=Kitty Curran and the Sicilian LionsLarissa Zageris

|genre=CrimeHumour|summary=Poldi had not long been widowed when she decided You are a lass of twenty-eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency-era London the race is on to move from Bavaria find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to Sicily with the intention of drinking herself to deathlife as an eternal spinster. She couldAlong your journey, of courseyou'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, have done this in Germany, but she felt that and fired by a sea view was essentialrogueish sense for adventure. Once thereWhen it comes to suitors though, new friendsyou'll have to make the ultimate decision between witty, family already resident on the island pretty and the corpse of a young manwealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, his face blown off by a shotgunrugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, whom she found on or the local beachmad, intervened to give her life some meaningbad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. For a while she was a suspectWith orphans, werewolves, but that (long lost lovers and her wig) were no obstacle to her falling for Commissario Vito Montana who was assigned to investigate ancient Egyptian artefacts along the case. Assisting him (or having him assist her) came naturally way, it's clear this isn't going to Poldi and before long there was be an investigative and personal partnershipeasy decision.. At least so far as Poldi was concerned.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908524693</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Grady HendrixStibbe_Xmas|title= My Best Friend's ExorcismAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= HorrorHumour|summary=1988Christmas – 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, Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best friends since fourth gradebet. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act...different. SheNowadays it's moody. Sheall having to make sure it's irritablesuitably 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. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearbyChristmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. AbbyIt's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusionbeards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748624</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kevin MacNeil|title=The Brilliant and Forever|rating= 3.5|genre= Humour|summary= You know sometimes when someone tells decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a jokechild, everyone else laughsand as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and you're sat there wondering what was so funnysell them any other time of the year?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973376</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Christopher FowlerDoescher_Will|title= Bryant and May: Strange Tide|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime|summary= The thirteenth outing for Bryant and May is looking very much like it will be their last. Arthur Bryant is on compassionate leave whilst tests are continuing, which are likely to confirm that he is suffering from AlzheimerWilliam Shakespeare's. His condition is worsening almost by the day, memory lapses are morphing into full-scale hallucinations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523422</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Kevin Smith|title=The Voyage of the Dolphin|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Dublin 1916Force Doth Awaken: Among the unrest and anti-British feeling worsened by the threat of conscription into a war seen as nothing to do with the Irish, Trinity College faculty has other distractions. They'd like a trophy; the skeleton of an Irish 'giant' to be precise. The only glitch is that the main trophy contender, Bernard MacNeill's skeleton, is somewhere difficult to access and all seasoned explorers are otherwise engaged. There may be hope though. They turn to Fitzmaurice, a student not good enough for anything else. Fitzmaurice agrees, picking his friends Crozier and Rafferty to go with him. So… ''Gentlemen, lace up your strongest boots and pack your warmest underwear – we're all off to Star Wars Part the bloody Arctic!'' Whether battle cry or epitaph, three men and a dog… and an iguana… are going anyway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124826</amazonuk>|amazonus=<amazonus>1910124826</amazonus>}}{{newreviewSeventh|author=Tony Hawks|title=Once Upon a Time in the West… Country|rating=3|genre=Travel|summary=I have often complained in a jokey voice to my partner about life in the sticks, and the way she moved me from an inner-city flat to slumming it in the suburbs with fewer busses, no takeaways within walking-and-keeping-food-hot distance, and no 'Polish' shops for a can of beer whenever you fancy one. Things are different with Tony Hawks, as here he has purposefully decided to up sticks from London to Somewhere, Devon – a tiny village where the people who built their own homes decades ago still live in them, where slugs are a lot more of a problem for the wannabe lettuce-grower than they are for the metropolitan commuter, and where village halls have the power to turn you into both a Pol Pot dictator if you get on their committee and into a quivering, bruise-inducing wreck if you're the wrong gender at a Zumba class…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444794809</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Marian Keyes|title=Making It Up As I Go AlongIan Doescher

|summary=In which Spadge researches Britain's top ten fears 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 faces them all over heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the course cinematic version of a year. Wehis original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken''re quite a fearful society, you know. And but here at last we get the things we fear most areactual script, complete with annoying-in order: heights (acrophobia)-different-ways-to-before droids anew, snakes (ophidiophobia), public speaking (glossophobia), spiders (arachnophobia), small spaces (claustrophobia), mice (musophobia), needles (trypanophobia), flying (pteromerhanophobia)returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, crowds (agoraphobia) and clowns (coulrophobia)people keeping it in the family til it hurts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993429904</amazonuk> 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…