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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]]==Humour==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen ClarkeDean Koontz|title=The Merde FactorBad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=HumourParanormal|summary=MeetBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, if you haven't alreadyhe loses his fiancee, Paul Westand his house gets trashed. Before now we've had four chances Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to meet him and see his struggles with all things French – their cuisine, their languagehome, their social life and their bureaucracy – in order to run an English-styled tea-room in it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the trendier side of Paris. thing that has trashed his house! Four books thenThe thing is, and we might have expected him Benny is the very last person to have settled down into some form of success – were deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it not for turns out that the fact this 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 comedy seriesgood person. But noSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he seems to still be in France on borrowed time, on borrowed Benny, and Harper (or sub-leta waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) land, and things can figure out who exactly they are certainly not turning out tres belle for him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780890338</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Drummond Moir (compiler)1529153050|title=Just My Typo: From 'sinning with the choir' to 'the large hardon colliderBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson

|summary=Warning: this book can seriously damage your reputation. Laughing in pubic will be Seeking some light relief from the least current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of your worries2022''. You Sharp eyes will reach have noted that we're not yet through the stage where teas year: the cartoons run down your face and you snort in politically incorrect fashion at the disfigured man who has always had a car on his face, or the one who could not find the cash from 4 September 2021 to buy a house and had to burrow31 August 2022. You'll snigger at the charmless who become harmless but it Who can imagine what there will be up to you as to whether or not you agree that love is just a passing fanny. Personally I felt very sorry for come in the man who studied and became an unclear physicist. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444759973</amazonuk>2023 edition?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Tyers and Beach1785633074|title=I Kick Therefore I am: The Little Book of Premier League Wisdom|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=You remember Ronnie Matthews, don't you? He's the footballer who celebrated his one – and so far, only – international match by booing his way through the Faroe Islands' national anthem, then getting a red card for chatting up the lineswoman. He still thinks he contributed well to a vital friendly, however. He's the player whose career in piddling his way through continuously lesser and lesser clubs for far too long has only been matched in the recent game by Steve Claridge. And still he's bucking the trend – he's the only author smart enough to realise that four-hundred page, ghost-written biogs are unnecessary, for he's crammed all his life, career, philosophy and response to Twitter into an hour's read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408832763</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewStaggering Hubris|author=Barry Fantoni|title=Harry Lipkin, Private Eye: The Oldest Detective in the WorldJosh Berry|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Harry Lipkin may not be the fittest private investigator in Florida once you take into account his indigestion and his arthritis, but at 87 he's definitely the oldest. Despite this he still manages to make a steady living, picking up the little jobs that don't interest the police and Norma Weinberger's problem comes into that category. Small but expensive knick-knacks seem to be going missing from around the house so could it be a light-fingered member of staff? The suspects (the gardener, the butler, the maid and the chauffer) each have their own story and motive, leaving Harry to get the four down to a short list of one. A task that's perhaps a little harder than it sounds.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972272</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alan Clark|title=Rory's Boys|rating=5|genre=Humour|summary=Rory Blaine, grandson of Lady Sybil Blaine is gay, free, single and loving it, as he tells himself a dozen times a day. He may be middle aged but he's still got it. He's a partner in a successful advertising firm and so, so over having been thrown out of home when he was a teenager; yes, over it – totally and completely. When he hears his grandmother is dying, he decides it's time to remind her (and her considerable wealth) of his existence. The tardy but intensive attention seems to pay off when he's left the ancestral pile. But the stately home wasn't left to him quite in the way that he thought. There are so many strings attached it resembles a marionette: if he wants to keep it he must transform it into the first retirement home for elderly gay gentlemen and he also seems to have acquired his first resident, whether he's wanted or not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906413886</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Serge Bloch|title=You are What You Eat: And Other Mealtime Hazards|rating=34.5

|summary=We last saw Serge Bloch's talents in [[Reach for Members of Parliament like us to believe that the Stars and Other Advice for Life's Journey country is run by politicians, headed by Serge Bloch|Reach for the Stars and Other Advice for LifePrime minister - the ''primus inter pares's Journey]] when we saw lots of whimsical advice for the Boy and his dog, Roger. This time he wants us to look at what we eat. Boy's mother has told him (that he is what he eats - so he's very careful about what he puts on his plate, because for those of you might end up with a pea-pod mouth who are Eton and a tomato tummy. Roger looks to have fared rather better - with a bone for a body. He at least seems to have a smile on his face!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1402797605</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip Reeve|title=Goblins|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Poor Skarper. HeOxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime's such a loser. In the violent and bloodthirsty goblin world where fighting and eating and taking other people's loot movers are allthe special advisers -timethe SPADS -favourite, number-one activities, he has a terrible handicapwho are the driving force behind the government. He thinks. In fact, he's pretty clever, for a goblin, We are in the privileged position of having access to the extent that he uses the goblins' bumwipe heaps for . . . reading. Yupmemoirs of Rafe Hubris, you heard me. Reading. The foolish hatchling works out that the black squiggles on man who was behind the mouldering heaps skilful control of soft and crinkly stuff left, long ago, the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the ancient inhabitants end of 2020. You might not know the tower, are written words, and instead of going out raiding like any sensible goblin, name now but he creeps off to a quiet corner will certainly be the man to work out what they meanwatch. Silly, eh?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407115278</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Etgar Keret0571365884|title=Suddenly, My Mess is a Knock on the Door Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett

|genre=Short StoriesAutobiography|summary=In the opening, titular story, Keret is forced by several people to create, and alterGeorgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a short short storychild. It's a plain metaphor for She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the history sort of Israel, life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but it proves that this modern Scheherazade is not too such occasions were few and far removed geographically from the originalbetween. And On a visit to a therapist, as an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what follows are probably the sort was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and ''My Mess is a Bit of short, tantalising, open-ended, rough-round-a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is theresult -edges and surreal results of being compelled or so we are given to carry on telling tall tales on a nightly basisbelieve.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186674</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicky HarlowJohn Boyne|title=Amelia and the VirginThe Echo Chamber

|summary=The country might be at war over the Falklands but life Meet George Cleverley. He is hardly straightself-forward in defined as "one of the few television personalities over the Mole householdage of fifty without a criminal record". AdrianHe starts this book a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's parents are back together after both had disastrous affairs and it's not long before Adrian is shocked to learn that carrying his child, but then his mother author wife is pregnantgetting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. HeThey have three children, who are a sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, a girl who hangs around with a virtue-signalling, keyboard warrior "wokester" who wants to save the world's equally shocked to see his father helping Doreen (homeless with out-of-date food, and afit young lad doing the gay hustle thing.k.Add in a. the 'stick insect') along a path which isn't particularly slippyfew other characters – therapists, lawyers, although he does notice random transgender types – that she seems all have two very different connections to his life, and you have put on quite a bit of weightsomething that suggests an almost farcical approach to the modern world. Pandora Braithwaite is as fickleWhat suggests the farcical approach even more, but adorablehowever, as ever and Adrian's hormones are still playing hop-scotch with his brainis the fact this is bloody funny. So, what's new?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141046430</amazonuk>0857526219

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John NivenStephen Clarke|title=The Second ComingSpy Who Inspired Me

|genre=HumourGeneral Fiction|summary=God has come back from This is a holiday and has some catching up to dospoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. What’s been happening on Earth But it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the ladies' and who works for the last couple of hundred years? The realisation hits him hard... it makes him sick secret service, but in fact. So what’s the answer? To quote planning side of things more than the religious cliché, Jesus isactive service. After Lemming finds himself put on a board meeting mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the senior saintspair end up stranded in Normandy, God decides that his son must be torn away from jamming with Hendrix to go back Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the streets of the world resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to remind the sinners of the way.keep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099535521</amazonuk>2952163855

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue TownsendAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾Kokoschka's Doll|rating=42.5|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Adrian Mole was just three months away Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from his fourteenth birthday when he began writing his diary on New Year's Day. He's just on the edge of true adolescence get- pimples are appearing as go, which is a little bit why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of interest in the opposite sexit. He's thinking about what he might like I found things to do ''eventually''potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, but his first major challenge is a chapter whose number was in the breakdown of his parents' marriage20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on. He writes It intrigued with the subterranean voice a wonderful mixture man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too. But you''knowingness'' ve seen the star rating that comes with this review, and innocence and usually manages to get things just ever-so-slightly wrongcan tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141046422</amazonuk>1529402697

{{newreview|author=Bruce Robinson|title=You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Rum Diary - A Screenplay|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Kemp has lied his way onto a failing newspaper Ambassador's Wife in San Juan, Puerto Rica, as [[Sorting the only candidate for Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the job, Priorities]] and in a semi-comatose state induced we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by too many miniatures from the hotel minibar, stumbles into a conspiracy Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of epic proportions, via classic bar room brawls Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and nightclub mayhemsettled in Rome. On Well 'settled' rather overstates the way he (almost) writes horoscopes situation and bowling championship storiestheir dog, meets the fantastically erotic girlfriend of the evil businessmanBeagle, and teams up with a proto-Nazi out has no intention of his mind on a cocktail of hootch and LSDslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and a photographer side kickdeaf. There is no question that this is Hunter S Thompson territory, especially when all the above is combined with a witty, slow-talking hero who in spite of his alcoholic haze sees clearly through the exploitation of a third world country by its massive first world near neighbour. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555697</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Francesca SimonB08GFSK2WZ|title=Horrid Henry's A - Z of Everything HorridThe Karma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd

|genre=Confident ReadersWomen's Fiction|summary=Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry George Jackson is a very popular little boythirty-three years old, although you might have a different opinion if you actually had absolutely gorgeous to put up with his antics yourselflook at - and single. A slightly modernised embodiment of She'slugs s not had sex for eight months and snails and puppy dogsshe' tails' concept s stuck in the karma trap: an awful lot of boyhood, Henry bad luck is naughtiness personified, combining irreverence being visited on her and she has a real talent for authority attracting drama. Her life's chaotic: she dealt with a huge dose the leak from the shower by putting something down at the bottom of grossthe stairs to absorb the water -out crude humour that really appeals to then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her, stark naked, staring at the target readership of early primary school childrenpervy postman. Add She only has to take her mother's dog out for a somewhat nostalgic, timeless feel, trademark alliterations, subtle (and not so subtle) digs at family dynamics, sibling rivalry and particularly at modern middlewalk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face -class manners and sensibilities and you have a winning character and a base for a very successful edutainment franchisephoto being taken by someone who shares it around the office.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444002260</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy ClarkeDavid C Mason|title=Low LifePandora's Gardener

|genre=HumourCrime|summary=I'm not John Cranston is a Spectator reader – indeed other than seeing on the shelves I'm ashamed to say that gardener, although what he did before starting to write this article I knew absolutely nothing about the magazinehe became a gardener, its stylehe claims, ethos or readership. Having (obviously) done the obligatory websearch I know understand that being its editor is considered a reasonable a route to success in the Conservative Party or other public office on a right-wing ticketclassified. A sister publication to The Daily Telegraph, it That is quoted just as being Atlanticist, usually supportive of Israel, and Eurosceptic well because he is about to be caught up in outlook. This makes me utterly unsuitable as a candidate to review Clarke's book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595511<criminal / spy /amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Guy Kennaway|title=Bird Brain|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary='It began for Basil ''Banger'' Peyton-Crumbe the day he died in a pheasant shooting incident'. If you were in any doubt as to the nature of the novel given the cover jacket and the author's disclaimer to the effect that any similarity between the human characters and any real person is entirely coincidentalterrorist plot, but where only he feels safe from any threats of libel action on behalf of can save the dead animals whose characters he has mercilessly manipulated for narrative effect, then its opening sentence should put you straightday.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224093991</amazonuk>0956180523

 {{newreview|author=Neil Forsyth|title=Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob Servant|rating=3.5Frontpage|genreisbn=General FictionJester_Forever|summary=Catchy title and catchy front cover graphics. What's not to like? It takes a lot to make me laugh generally, but as I had an initial flick through this book, things looked promising. And I was also thinking that it's a pleasant change to see another location (other than perhaps the predictable Glasgow and Edinburgh) get an airing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780270097</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Harry Thompson|title=TintinForever After: Herge and His Creation|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=I love Tintin. I love his quiff and his innocence, his plus-fours and his foreign adventures, I love Snowy the dog and most of all I love Captain Haddock and the flamboyance of his blistering barnacles language. So I was thrilled to see a biography of the character and Hergé, his creator, and I picked it up with enthusiasm. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848546726</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joseph Heller|title=Catch 22|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=At the heart of the very black dark comedy that is ''Catch 22'' is Captain Yossarian, a World War II American bombardier, who wants to survive the war. Flying repeated combat missions is undermining his sanity, and surely a mad man should be grounded? But if he asks to be grounded, he demonstrates an absolutely sane concern for his own safety. If he is sane, he can't be grounded. This, his doctor tells him, is catch 22.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099529114</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=William Giraldi|title=Busy MonstersDavid Jester

|genre=General FictionHorror|summary=Charles Homar loves his Gillian. He's proved it to us, if not to her, by going after her possessive, jealous state trooper of an ex with the intent to kill - if only ended up rescuing Michael Holland is a cat instead. But lo cocky and brash young man who dies and behold, she's declared she's off to discover gets made the real love offer of her life - the giant squidhis lifetime; immortality. Failing to stop thisWe follow Michael, Charlie spends too long with a Nessie obsessive, then goes on a hunt of grim reaper and his own - for Bigfootfriends, all the while, chapter by chapter, sending his narrative of the same to Chip (a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columns.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kevin Wilson|title=The Family Fang|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Annie Fang stoner tooth fairy) and her brother Buster are back living at home with their parents - where they never thought they'd ever be again. But it has come to this - her film actress career is on Naff (a stoner in the rocks with the kind of self-destruction so much enjoyed by tabloid writers, and he - well, he's here because of a jumbo spud gun. Neither want life back at home, records department) as throughout their childhood they were used by grapple with their parents - without much planning, without any consideration of feelings, or consent - in long lives and finding a whole career of performance art pieces, designed clean surface to enact a point of life or just cause havoc.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447202384</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Zadie Smith|title=White Teeth|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Some books sneak up sit on you. Others are thrown at you from every corner of the media to the extent that you almost make a conscious decision NOT to read them, or at least, not yet. Let the furore die down. If they're still around in a few years, your subconscious whispers, maybe we'll go see what all the fuss was abouttheir flat. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241954576</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Lodge1683691172|title=The Campus TrilogyWilliam Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Ian Doescher|rating=42.5

|summary=Somewhere along A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, all the line Star Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, and the word "vintage" stopped meaning simply marriage seemed a perfectly suitable one. So much so – so easily did the wine crop of any given yearplots and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, and started behave with Shakespearean stage directions – that the producers tried again, with [[William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to mean the wine of a particularly good year, and then Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to mean anything of the Future]] no less. And that worked. But simultaneously they put a past year that real test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was (is) of outstanding qualitytranscribed into the original Elizabethan lingo. Such is A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the mutability of languagebrand new, yet oh so ancient, dressing. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099529130</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=Ludwig Bechstein, Axel Sceffler and Julia Donaldson168369094X|title=The Gloomster|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=WeWilliam Shakespeare've all been there. Finding fault with everything around us, and perhaps picking on one particular irritant that gets us so rattled, tetchy and narked all we can do is invoke "Hell and damnations Get Thee Back to the Future!" down on all creation - including, of course, ourselves. After all, our lot is so bad it won't make anything much worse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571274242</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stella Gibbons|title=Conference at Cold Comfort FarmIan Doescher

|summary=There are no Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm. To those of you who've not read Stella Gibbons' magnificient A long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons:Category:Ian Doescher|original novelsomeone]]thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the story of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, this is hardly likely to be colliding two entirely different genres and styles in such a major shock - to clever way they seemed perfectly suited. It was then duly repeated for all the other films in the Gibbons fans amongst usmain Star Wars cycle, though, this is chilling news indeed. And when RobertPosteand clearly someone's child Flora returns to buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, the farm - now a modernised monstrosity full of members title of which became public knowledge the day before I write. In the International Thinkers' Group – sixteen years after her original visithiatus, however, the news get graver and graver, as effort has been made to see if the cows Feckless, Graceless, Pointlesssame shtick works with other texts, and Aimless to riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. And could we have passed away of shame due anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to the disgrace Future, with its tales of the bull Big Business. With the menfolk trying to make their fortunes abroadtime travel, bullying, and the women struggling, it's left to Flora to try to save the day once again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099528681<parent/amazonuk>child strife like no other?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stella Gibbons1473669065|title=Cold Comfort FarmQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel|author=Ruth Hogan

|summary=Orphaned at 19Tilda returns to Brighton, Flora Poste – a London sophisticate – is led to retreat to deepest Sussex tidy away the remains of her mother's life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to live off her relatives the Starkadders at the aptly named Cold Comfort FarmParadise hotel, a mournful bunch who take haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her in as they couldn't refuse anything of 'Robert Poste's a child', but seem less than happy with having to do sofrom this place of wonder. As she meets With the preacher Amoshelp of Queenie Malone, his over-sexed younger son Seth, his flighty sister Elphinecaring, and the hugely memorable – if barely seen – Aunt Ada Doomgregarious, the first person in literature Tilda begins to see 'something nasty in pick apart the woodshed' – tricky and uncertain relationship she resolves to take the family in hand had with her sometimes cruel and solve their problemsdistant mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141441593</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Jose Farmer1683690346|title=The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Peerless Peer|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=It's World War One, and Britain has got wind of some brilliant scientific research, that has created a new bacterial weapon capable of wiping out the world's supply of sauerkraut. But a dastardly German has stolen the formula. Before he can give a variant based on boiled meat, cabbage and potatoes to the kaiser, his most recent nemesis - Sherlock Holmes, no less - must be brought out of beekeeping retirement. Cue an adventure and a half, as he and Watson take to the skies for the first time in their hectic lives, end up in darkest Africa, and encounter a certain yodelling, long-haired nobleman, more than up to the name of King of the Jungle...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857681206</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewCon Artist|author=Tom Sharpe|title=The Wilt InheritanceFred Van Lente|rating=3.54

|summary=Wilt is stuck in Comic-Cons are a job he doesn't want – teaching a subject place of wonder and sanctuary for many people, and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's not keen on to people looking for whom he has no affection – at one both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, plus the chance of the new Universitiesmaybe, just maybe reuniting with his ex. We used to know them as technical colleges. But he can't afford However, when his rival is found dead, Mike is forced to lose it because navigate every dark corner of the expense of keeping the quads at an expensive school con in order to clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and of maintaining intrusive fans to zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his snobbish wifeinnocence and, Eva. It's Eva though who signs him up for a job in the summer holidays – tutoring the step-son of doing so, may just unravel a local aristocrat in the hope of getting him into Cambridge – and particularly Porterhouse College. It's not long before Wilt discovers that the boy totes a gun and shoots at anything which moves – or even doesn't move – and that he's an idiot who would probably struggle to get dark secret behind a bus to Cambridgelegendary industry creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099493136</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alain Mabanckou1473669588|title=Memoirs of a PorcupineFalling Short|author=Lex Coulton

|genre=Literary FictionHumour|summary=The protagonist of this Lex Coulton's debut novel is an ordinary Congolese porcupine until Papa Kibandi performs an ancient ritual involving a hallucinogenic cocktail called ''mayamvumbi''story about mistakes, failures, and transforms him into his son's harmful doublerelationships. The insecure younger Kibandi becomes more and more embittered as his life goes onmain protagonist, and sends his porcupine to 'eat' anybody he feels the least bit threatened byFrances Pilgrim, is a process whereby that person's life essence is sucked sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen outwith her best friend Jackson, killing them instantly. Over one hundred victims later a work colleague and following his master's death at is grappling with the hands increasingly eccentric behaviour of a vengeful baby, our narrator retires to the hollow of a baobab tree where he writes this confessionalher mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687675</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tom Holt|title=Life, Liberty and This relationship is complicated by the Pursuit of Sausages|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Imagine a world where pigs can do quantum mechanics, and where female solicitors turn into chickens. Add a dry cleaner fact that moves (literally, from the roof tiles to the basement) from town to town every forty-eight hours, a couple of medieval knights who've fought every day for centuries, and a magical ring (or pencil sharpener, depending on the mood itFrances's in). Stir in a bit of property developing, a thaumaturgical detective and an father disappeared at sea when she was five years old man who lives in a cloud. Result? You haven't even begun to probe the depths of this crazy, absurd, complex and hilarious book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495077</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steve Hely|title=How I Became a Famous Novelist|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=With an uncompromising title like 'How I Became a Famous Novelist', this clearly isn't intended to be a subtle book. So I can hardly complain when a cynical look at the writing industry swings raw punches in every direction. It just isn't my sort of humour, but equally, if you rave about 'The Office' you will likely enjoy this book far more than I have done.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015724</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles Lamb1683690133|title=Great Food: A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig My Lady's Choosing|author=Kitty Curran and Other EssaysLarissa Zageris

|genre=CookeryHumour|summary=''A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig'' is You are a collection lass of foodtwenty-related essays from eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency-era London the early 19th century, with race is on to find a humorous bentsuitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. TheyAlong your journey, you're but a few pages each ll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a light read fiesty noble eager to bring save you from a smile life alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes to your facesuitors though, then on 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 next little foodie treatway, it's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951003</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=ClientsFromHell.netStibbe_Xmas|title=Clients From HellAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5

|summary=Everyone who's worked as a freelancer has a story Christmas – the time of a client from hell - that person who asked traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for something that – once upon a time it was impossible, wanted leaving it done yesterday for a fraction of sat on the usual pricedownstairs loo to defrost overnight, or is just plain angry about and if that failed the work producedhair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. The website [http://wwwNowadays it's all having 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.clientsfromhellChristmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons.net ClientsFromHell.net] has collated It's cash in hand for a number lot of such stories over plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the yearsthank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and has now published as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them as a book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0982473931</amazonuk>any other time of the year?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Manu JosephDoescher_Will|title=Serious Men|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Ayyan Mani is a Dalit, an untouchable, stuck in a flat in MumbaiWilliam Shakespeare's slums but hoping, somehow, for a better future for his son. Working at the Insitute of Theory and Research he uses all his cunning and wiles to stay ahead of the game amongst the Brahmin scientists. Does he have Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the intelligence, and nerves, to convince everyone that his son, against all odds, is a genius?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848543085</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSeventh|author=John Saunders|title=The Vernham ChroniclesIan Doescher|rating=4.5

|summary=Set amidst the rolling British countryside around Vernbury Vale is the little village of Vernham. Anyone who lives A long time ago, in a village will recognise it immediatelygalaxy far away, with its cobbled streets and Tudor buildings. There there was some damage during the war (which mighta man called William Shakespeare, or might not have been down who was able to create a lighthouse folly constructed by a local landowner on his lake) but the gaps have been filled with some beautifulseries of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, er, mock Tudor buildingsrulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. Almost unique and nearly beautiful as the village is, it's You may or may not have noticed the star cinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Vernham Chronicles. The stars are Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the people who live in Vernham.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907499598</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Martin Millar|title=The Good Fairies of New York|rating=4|genre=Fantasy|summary=In this fairytale of New Yorkactual script, the Cornish fairy King's children are living complete with annoying-in exile-different-ways-to-before droids anew, hiding returning heroes from elsewhere in Central Park from a nasty industrial revolution back home. They have friends from Ireland with themhis oeuvre, and all have people keeping it in the ability to startle the local squirrelsfamily til it hurts. Elsewhere two innocent scallywag fairies fleeing Scotland have arrived, and adopted a human each. Heather has joined up with DinnieAnd if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the cityseries is so popular we's worst busker, a fat, alcoholic and lonely fan of TV ads for phone sex, while Morag befriends Kerry, a dying kleptomaniac beauty, just re on to part seven – surely making this over twice as alone for different reasons.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954205</amazonuk>good…