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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Christopher FowlerJen Beagin|title= Bryant and May – The Burning ManBig Swiss|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeHumour |summary= The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) has a new set I found the premise of overlordsthis book totally original and addictive. For reasons that were explored in Greta possesses the previous couple of outings they have been transferred power to know the City Of London Policepopulation of Hudson, New York's darkest secrets, their intimate lives, their fetishes and fears. The Met are still the big players in the areaHow? Her job is to transcribe their sex therapy sessions. City of London Police only police the old citySure, the square milethere's a confidentiality agreement, as the financial district in other wordssex coach who calls himself Om keeps reminding her, but that has very little just makes it more exciting. Like we've all probably wished for at some point in life, Greta can exist passively, placidly, as a fly on the way of street crimewall. That is, because nountil Greta decides to unglue her fly-one lives there anymore and feet from the safety of the people who work there are, by wall and large, either too rich to need to steal, or buzz far too smart close to have to do so on the streetssun.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857522043</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg|title=The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again! |rating=3.5|genre=Humour|summary=Following sun in this analogy is the success of sex coach's newest patient, who Greta dubs 'The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules'Big Swiss', and who, like the League of Pensioners are back – sun, is bright, blonde and beautiful - and this timeirresistible to Greta. Suddenly, they’re in Vegas! I haven’t read the first book but it was on my list when confidentiality agreement, the opportunity arose ethics of her professional position, her loyalties to review this one. The idea Om, fly out of the League of Pensioners marching towards a fairer world through fun and frolics was hugely appealing to me and this is a stand alone novel so I thought I would dive straight window. She's in with this onetoo deep.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447274903</amazonuk>0571378579

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=WinshlussDean Koontz|title=In God We TrustThe Bad Weather Friend

|genre=Graphic NovelsParanormal|summary=To start with, Benny is having a rhetorical testterrifically bad day. How about God He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and Adam playing badminton day in and day out, until one his house gets bored and decides to create Eve? trashed. Or the defeater of Goliath Oh, and the saviour of the Israelites being one Conan the Barbarian? Or this as someone has delivered a test – Jesus Himself failing really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to have a successful session of tequila slammers with Gabriel due to the holes through His hands? I barely need mention that in these pages God does battle with Supermanhis home, for you to have answered the test and put yourself firmly in one of two camps for this book – one very much opposed to buying it, and one very much in favour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662350</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=David Walliams and Tony Ross|title=The Queen's Orang-Utan|rating=5|genre=For Sharing|summary=The Queen felt trapped in possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the palace with all those stuffed animals which she thing that has been given on foreign tours. trashed his house! There are mountains of them and every night she would dream of escaping. When her birthday drew near The thing is, Benny is the family dutifully asked her what she would like as a presentvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. The Prince was thinking of He is a gold, diamond encrusted stairlift whilst the Duke was considering a great big bottle of brandynice person. The Royal Baby had some decorated thimbles in mind, but the Queen became just a little snappish as she explained that what she A really wanted was 'One's own orang-utan'nice person. And she didn't mean So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a stuffed onenew friend, either.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008135134</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jack Sheffield|title=Silent Night|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I read a couple of Jack Sheffield’s books about five years agobad weather friend called Spike, and enjoyed them very much. They were written in a similar style who has been sent to those popularised by, for instance, James Herriot or [[:Category:Gervase Phinn|Gervase Phinn]], told mostly in the first person, describing the author’s first couple of years as Headmaster at a small village primary school in Yorkshire. The village of Ragley help him since Benny is fictional, as are most of the characters, but the incidents and situations encountered are based on the author’s experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552167045</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=J Robert Lennon|title=See You In Paradise|rating=3|genre=Short Stories|summary=Lennon writes with a relaxed, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people clearly under attack from everyday walks of life, without nefarious forces for being in any way stereotypicala good person. Many of the people in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon Spike is cleverly detached enough not to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed going to root for (the only exception is the industrialist in the eponymous tale, who is an archetypal capitalist fat cat). There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head'', for example, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions take care of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfair. For meBenny, the most unsettling story is ''No Life'', because it portrays a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy will certainly take care of social power.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lynne Truss|title=Cat out of Hell|rating=3|genre=Horror|summary=Meet Alec Charlesworth. HeBenny's retired and decamped to an isolated coastal cottage with just his dog and loving memories of his colleague wifeenemies, now that she has died before her time. But the fusty librarian cannot rest too long before engaging in exploring some unusual computer files that were pinged across by someone at the college if he worked at, just before he left. Bizarrely they show photographic Benny, and audio evidence of Harper (a talking cat called Roger, replete with Vincent Price voice – although waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are also damaged by being included alongside some bad screenplay attempts about said cat. Worryingly, we soon see what at the most only a few of the characters can, that this cat is being accompanied by unusual and unexpected death – much like Alec's wife. It's only when Roger testifies to having been pushed through the ends of endurance and out the other side that we begin to doubt where the true evil in this story lies…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099585340</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jimmy Hansen and Mychailo Kazybird1529153050|title=Wallace & Gromit : The Complete Newspaper Strips Collection Vol 2Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson

|summary=For me there are two important areas of Seeking some light relief from the cover of this book where three letters are arranged in meaningful ways. The first current political turmoil which is with the S-U-N in their obligatory red coming to seem more and white fontmore like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of 2022''. No minor paper could hold Wallace and Gromit, their adventures Sharp eyes will have to be in what is (unfortunately) the most widely read tabloid in the country. And elsewhere is C-B-E, suggesting noted that even we're not yet through the storytellers at Aardman Animations who are not household names are feted and revered as artistic experts, raising many laughs and much money for year: the country courtesy of their creative outputcartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. Together these short collections of letters show just how much WaG are major creations, and if Who can imagine what there will be to come in the proof was needed this much longer collection of their daily comic strips provides it in spades.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782760822</amazonuk>2023 edition?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633074|title=Dear Committee MembersStaggering Hubris|author=Julie SchumacherJosh Berry

|summary=Miss Elizabeth Mapp rules Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the town ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those of Tilling you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - she is who are the centre of driving force behind the social life, and spends her days enjoying bridge, polite conversation and civilised paintinggovernment. When Mrs Emmeline Lucas arrives We are in town (known the privileged position of having access to all as Lucia)the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, Miss Mapp finds her life truly shaken up, as the cultured, fashionable and progressive Lucia makes her home in man who was behind the skilful control of the town, and swiftly rises to Covid crisis which was completely contained by the top end of 2020. You might not know the ranks amongst name now but he will certainly be the social scene in Tillingman to watch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849908478</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0571365884|title=Encyclopedia ParanoiacaMy Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Henry Beard and Christopher CerfGeorgia Pritchett

|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary=We're screwed. Wherever we lookGeorgia Pritchett has always been anxious, whatever we think of doing, there is even as a reason why we shouldn't be doing it, and people to back that reason up with scientific datachild. Take any aspect She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of your daily life – what you eat, how you work, how you rest even, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness or worse. And outside that daily sphere there are economic disasters, nuclear meltdowns, errant AI scientists where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and passing comets that could turn our world upside down at the blink of an eyefar between. Perhaps then you better read this book first – for it may well turn out On a visit to be your last…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Diary of a Mad Diva|author=Joan Rivers|rating=3.5|genre=Humour|summary=The late Joan Rivers wastherapist, without a doubt, a character. Actress, comedian, writer, director, presenteras an adult, when she was well known in the USA and beyond for completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her sharp tongue it was suggested that she should write it down and no holds barred persona. This was the last ''My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the dozen books she published, her final title before her death in September 2014result - or so we are given to believe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0425269027</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - The Nearly Definitive EditionJohn Boyne|authortitle=Douglas AdamsThe Echo Chamber

|summary=There are Meet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as "one of the few series that have garnered such television personalities over the age of fifty without a criminal record". He starts this book a cult following as bit worried when his mistress tells him she'The Hitchhikers Guide to s carrying his child, but then his author wife is getting her kicks with the Galaxy'Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. Whether the fans They have come from the radio seriesthree 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 (impossibly hard) computer gameworld's homeless with out-of-date food, or and a fit young lad doing the (well intentioned but not particularly good) film, they are everywheregay hustle thing. Ask Add in a room of people what the meaning of few other characters – therapists, lawyers, random transgender types – that all have two very different connections to his life is, and you can be pretty sure a good few will pipe up with '42' as have something that suggests an almost farcical approach to the modern world. What suggests the farcical approach even more, however, is the answerfact this is bloody funny.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0434023396</amazonuk>0857526219

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Quick Pint After WorkStephen Clarke|authortitle=Luke LewisThe Spy Who Inspired Me

|genre=HumourGeneral Fiction|summary=BuzzFeed This is one of the world’s best time sucksa spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. But it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and I’m regularly directed to 'likes the site by links from Facebook ladies' and Twitterwho works for the secret service, but in between browsing the app on my phoneplanning side of things more than the active service. According to the author bio Lemming finds himself put on this booka mission with a female spy called Margaux, BuzzFeed is 'a social news and entertainment company', which is a fancy way of describing lots of fun lists that speak to the readership (20 words that have a completely different meaning pair end up stranded in Manchester, 30 Things all ex-gymnasts know to be trueNormandy, 40 Very British problems, yadda yadda yadda). These list work well with Margaux on line when you want a quick distractiondesperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and they’re easy Lemming desperately trying to flip through, looking at the attached photos or video clips. The question then, is whether or not BuzzFeed the book will have the same appeal.keep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751557730</amazonuk>2952163855

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Graeme SimsionAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=The Rosie EffectKokoschka's Doll|rating=42.5|genre=HumourLiterary Fiction|summary=Following inadvertent success with Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the Wife Projectget-go, Professor Don Tillman which is why I picked my review copy up and his new bride Rosie have moved from Australia to New Yorkflipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. Although Don's position 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 autistic scale is subjective20,000s, he still operates on a daily basis of structured proceduresletters used as narrative form, lists and logicso on. Rosie can generally handle It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that but there are choppy waters aheadwhat little I knew of it mentioned, too. With But you've seen the patter of tiny feet imminent logic goes out the window as she struggles star rating that comes with her PhD while Don struggles to find his place in the baby production process. At least he has his drinking buddies to support him – an aging rock drummer this review, and a friend whose wife has thrown him out for infidelitycan tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. What could possibly go wrongSo what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718179471</amazonuk>1529402697

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short StoriesBut Never For Lunch|author=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard ThomasSandra Aragona

|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing ''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 politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead more to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrong. Are you prepared point, about to enter discover the real world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust bus timetables and question?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>}}paying his own gas bills.''

{{newreview|author=Sammy Looker|title=Something Nasty in the Slushpile|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=I couldnYou don't resist the title - a neat play on get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Cold Comfort Farm Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Stella GibbonsSandra Aragona|Cold Comfort FarmSorting the Priorities]] and I'm sure that you'll understand that I we learned what it was expecting some examples of the horrors like to be found amongst moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the mountain Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of unsolicited manuscripts which every publisher accumulatesFormer Ambassador... IThey have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'll confess I was expecting to giggle, even to groan - unkind, I know - and Isettled'd mentally shelved rather overstates the book with the triviasituation and their dog, Beagle, or (hopefully) the humour. There is that element to the bookhas no intention of slowing down any time soon, but there's also something far more usefuldespite being sixteen and deaf. If you're thinking about publishing a book this should be required reading ''before'' you even go near a publisher.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472111028</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08GFSK2WZ|authortitle=The QueenKarma Trap|titleauthor=Still ReigningLisette Boyd

|genre=HumourWomen's Fiction|summary=Anyone who frequents Twitter will know that itGeorge 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 the karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is being visited on her and she has a mixed blessingreal talent for attracting drama. ItHer life's a mine chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the shower by putting something down at the bottom of wonderful information the stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and supportive camaraderieleft her, stark naked, staring at the pervy postman. ItShe only has to take her mother's also dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - unfortunately - home to and a lot of people photo being taken by someone who take great pleasure in causing pain to othersshares it around the office. But in amongst all this are }} {{Frontpage|author=David C Mason|title=Pandora's Gardener|rating=3|genre=Crime|summary= John Cranston is a few gems and one of them is [https://twitter.com/Queen_UK @Queen_UK]gardener, although what he did before he became a delightful satire on members of the royal familygardener, celebritieshe claims, the political classes and the state of Her Majesty's nationis classified. Or, ''one's nation'' That is just as Ma'am would say. ''Still Reigning'' well because he is her second bookabout to be caught up in a criminal / spy / terrorist plot, after ''Gin O'Clock'' and it's the sort of parody which leaves you wondering if the writer might not be someone ''very'' close to where only he can save the originalday.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0715649132</amazonuk>0956180523

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Jester_Forever|title=Last Days of the Bus ClubForever After: a dark comedy|author=Chris StewartDavid Jester

|genre=HumourHorror|summary=I could well have been Michael Holland is a near-neighbour cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of Chris Stewarthis lifetime; immortality. NotWe follow Michael, of course, near a grim reaper and his current primary occupancy, an ecological farmstead just beyond the turning off from the back end of nowhere in the most rural of corners of southern Spain, but back when he lived in the south-east of England, being Genesis' first ever drummerfriends, Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and building bridges Naff (a stoner in the North Downs. The fact I learnt the latter from this book shows up several of the features of this warm-hearted 'travelogue' – the fact that Stewart is never shy about portraying family details records department) as they grapple with their long lives and history – given finding a good map and a prevailing wind one could find where he lives and descend clean surface to sit on the farm, if one wished; and that while this might be on the travel shelves, the narrative is so fragmented it actually moves a lot more than any of the characters doin their flat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745436</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1683691172|title=Summer HalfWilliam Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Angela ThirkellIan Doescher|rating=42.5

|summary=If one didn’t know of Angela Thirkell’s distinguished background as A long time ago, in a granddaughter of Sir Edward Burne-Jones galaxy far away, all the Star Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, and daughter of the marriage seemed a classicistperfectly suitable one. So much so – so easily did the plots and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, it would be tempting to describe her as a kind of country cousin of and behave with Shakespearean stage directions – that the producers tried again, with [[:Category:P G WodehouseWilliam Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher|P.G. Wodehouse’sBack to the Future]]. An unaffected and intelligent one, whose humour is no less sophisticated but bubbles over with just as much glee. The middle-class world she has created, where young men come from families And that are comfortably wealthy rather than outrageously so, offers worked. But simultaneously they put a counterpoint to real test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was transcribed into the Mitford or Wodehouse worlds with their aristocratic characters who travel original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the world and mingle with more louchebrand new, yet oh so ancient, bohemian onesdressing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184408969X</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|titleisbn=The Bojeffries Saga168369094X|authortitle=Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse|rating=5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=A very truncated history of comics will start with the idea that they should be funny strips – one jape then youWilliam Shakespeare're out; then that they should have more – perhaps a superhero; then that you can have so much more than just a superhero – witness the works of [[:Category:Alan Moore|Alan Moore]]. But you mustn't be too surprised s Get Thee Back to see the whole thing come around in a full cycle. Because Alan Moore has, with this volume, concluded his own funny strip japery, and whatever history or greater opinions about the canon of comix might say, it's just about his best ever book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662318</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFuture!|author=Reverend Adam Smallbone|title=The Rev DiariesIan Doescher

|summary=Adam Smallbone wasn’t always A long time ago, in a vicar. He used publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to work for rewrite the Bristol Housing Departmentstory of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, enabling his father-colliding two entirely different genres and styles in-law to tell everyone he worked 'in property'such a clever way they seemed perfectly suited. From there, his initial calling It was to a rural church then duly repeated for all the other films in Suffolk which did nothing to prepare him for thisthe main Star Wars cycle, his current London inner city parish. Indeed, heand clearly someone's not prepared buffing their quills ready for Adoha (Episode Nine, the Nigerian parishioner with 19 grandchildren and 'title of which became public knowledge the day before I write. In the bottom of God') or Colinhiatus, however, the homeless alcoholic who effort has adopted Adam been made to see if the same shtick works with other texts, and his wife Alex (Mrs Vicarage to Colin)riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. But then Alex also has a lot And could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to get used to; after allthe Future, with its tales of time travel, bullying, she didn't actually marry a vicar.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718178394<and parent/amazonuk>child strife like no other?

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1473669065|title=Look WhoQueenie Malone's BackParadise Hotel|author=Timur VermesRuth Hogan

|genre=General FictionHumour|summary=Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her mother''Hitler Youth Ronaldo! Which way s life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the street?'' With these words Paradise hotel, a very misguided Nazi Fuhrer asks haven for his first directions in the Berlin of 2011eccentrics and misfits. Mistakenly believing the lad to A place where people can be a party junior member with his own name on his football shirtthemselves, he also thinks and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a while it is still 1945child, from this place of wonder. He's soon informed of the truth, but still makes some unfortunate conclusions – that With the street kiosks selling Turkish language newspapers are a sign help of a Soviet-beating alliance between the two countriesQueenie Malone, that people eat granola bars because the war still leads to a bread shortagecaring, and that people making an ironic speech bubble with their fingers in gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the air is all that is left of the Hitler salute. But yes, after a long hiatus neither he nor our author is particularly concerned tricky and uncertain relationship she had with explaining, ''that man'' is back – her sometimes cruel and if he has his way he's going to be just as popular this time round…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052926</amazonuk>distant mother.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam Ruck1683690346|title=The Bluffer's Guide to Golf (Bluffer's Guides)Con Artist|author=Fred Van Lente|rating=4.5|genre=SportHumour|summary=The fly leaf suggests that this Bluffer's Guide is the way to instantly acquire all the knowledge which you need to pass as an expert in the ''arcane Comic-Cons are a place of wonder and sanctuary for many people, and labyrinthine'' world of golf. Therewhen Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's quite a bit there looking for both that I'd agree on - the rules (and to an unfortunate extent the ''attitudes'') are arcane sanctuary with other fans and they seem to take a lifetime to mastercreators, but there's a surprising amount plus the chance of information tucked away inside this little bookmaybe, just maybe reuniting with his ex. What I might quibble with However, when his rival is found dead, Mike is whether or not you would ''pass as an expert'' (which suggests that you're something forced to navigate every dark corner of a the con man): there's enough detail here in order to clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to give you zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, in doing so, may just unravel a dark secret behind a solid grounding without needing to blufflegendary industry creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909365327</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1473669588|title=The Collected Works of A J FikryFalling Short|author=Gabrielle ZevinLex Coulton

|summary=It Lex Coulton's debut novel is easy to see why Horrid Henry remains such an enduring a story about mistakes, failures, and well-liked children’s characterrelationships. The adventures of this cheekymain protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, irreverent schoolboy and is a cast of extreme characters including Miss Battle Axesixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, The Demon Dinner Lady, Rabid Rebecca a work colleague and arch-nemesis Moody Margaret are incredibly funny and a perfect way to encourage reluctant young readers to cultivate a love is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of readingher mother. It This relationship is no surprise then, complicated by the fact that the series has spawned a set of three spin-off joke books, which have now been combined to create a single volume: ''Horrid Henry’s Biggest and Best Ever Joke Book'Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144401174X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1683690133|title=Let Me Off at the Top!: My Classy Life and Other MusingsLady's Choosing|author=Ron BurgundyKitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

|summary=''This book You are a lass of twenty-eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency-era London the race is on to find a testament suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to my giant ballslife as an eternal spinster.Along your journey, you'' But it's also ll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a lot more. The story we've never been able fiesty noble eager to discern save you from either of the ''Anchorman'' films is one of surprising hardship, unsurprising hardnessa life alone, and great hairfired by a rogueish sense for adventure. It's a rags-When it comes to-riches talesuitors though, as Ron Burgundy comes from a Hicksville town in the middle of the outskirts of somewhere the arse end of nowhere (a town perpetually on fire due you'll have to make the accidents in ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mines underneath) mad, bad and struggles against all the odds – terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and many of ancient Egyptian artefacts along the evens in the shape of womenway, it's legs – clear this isn't going to get where he is today, thrusting himself and his news at us nightlybe an easy decision...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780892241</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=Outraged of Tunbridge Wells: Original Complaints from Middle EnglandAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nigel CawthorneNina Stibbe|rating=4.5

|summary=It Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was ever thus… cyclists go too fast, without using a hooter or lights; there are hoodlums everywhere one looksleaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and no public conveniences; people pretend if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to have qualifications make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and degrees they haven't rightfully earned; buses are get too busy friendly with shopping women who should be indoors alreadyit to want to eat it. Christmas, though, cooking for their working menfolk… is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a very clever idea to show exactly what is behind the 'disgusted lot of Tunbridge Wells' tagplump people who can hire red suits and beards, and as it was always a book to be shelved alongside those godsend for postmen with all the wackier thank-you letters sent to the ''Daily Telegraph'', these selections from the Royal town's press itself make aunties you saw twice a great eyedecade that your parents made you write out in long-opener to hand as a child, and as for the complaints makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and complainants sell them any other time of Kent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908096918</amazonuk>the year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charlie HillDoescher_Will|title=BooksWilliam Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh|author=Ian Doescher

|summary=Neurology professor Lauren Furrows witnesses the sudden untimelydeath of two tourists A long time ago, in a bar while on holidaygalaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. Birmingham bookshop ownerRichard Anger happens to be in You may or may not have noticed the same bar so together our single holidaymakers decide to team up as an investigatory force to be reckoned with.(Well, Lauren teams up cinematic version of his original stage play for that. Richard's reasons are more physical thanintellectual to begin 'The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the actual script, complete with.) The murders seem annoying-in-different-ways-to emanate -before droids anew, returning heroes from author GarySayles, a legend elsewhere in his own mind oeuvre, and, apparently, fatal to readpeople keeping it in the family til it hurts. Elsewherehippy exhibitionists (in an over-18 way) Zeke and PippaAnd if you need further encouragement, are planning don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here theart installation series is so popular we're on to end all art installations and, are determined to makeGary the centrepiece, whether he realises it or not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781251630</amazonuk>part seven – surely making this over twice as good…