82ASK

A A Gill

Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. E. W. Mason

A. Humphreys

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

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P.G. Wodehouse

Meet the hilarious British dilettante Bertram 'Bertie' Wooster who can't seem to help finding himself in the middle of awkward social situations, calling upon his valet Jeeves to escape embarrassment.

'A comic master' David Walliams 
 
'Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale . . . A world for us to live and delight in' Evelyn Waugh 
 
A veritable feast of comedy awaits with this delightful collection of Wodehouse stories featuring the infamous Bertie Wooster and everyone's favourite gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves. 
 
Witness the iconic first meeting of Bertie and Jeeves and follow them as they navigate the endless scrapes that the hapless Bertie lands them in. Meet the fearsome and meddling Aunt Agatha - who would like nothing more than to see Bertie settle down - and Bingo Little - Bertie's insatiable friend who has fallen head-over-heels for seven different girls. Specially selected and introduced by Wodehouse himself - and containing the timeless classics Carry On, Jeeves, The Inimitable Jeeves and Very Good, Jeeves - there's something for everyone in this omnibus.

The World of Jeeves

(Jeeves & Wooster)

'I want you to meet my nephew, Bertie Wooster,' said Aunt Agatha. 'He has just arrived. Such a surprise! I had no notion that he intended coming...' 
 
A collection of classic stories featuring some of the funniest episodes in the life of gentleman Bertie Wooster and his incomparable valet Jeeves. 
 
Meddling Aunt Agatha wants to see Bertie married, and nothing will stop her from playing matchmaker. The problem? Bertie has no plans to settle down. So it's up to Jeeves to find Bertie a way out of marrying the terrifying Honoria Glossop, and to help Bertie's insatiable friend Bingo Little navigate falling head-over-heels for seven different girls.

The Inimitable Jeeves

_________________________________________ 
'If comedy is your thing, it's hard to match PG Wodehouse and his classic characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster for hilarious farce.' Irish Daily Mail 
 
'P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century' Sebastian Faulks 
 
'Heaven is Right Ho, Jeeves' Hugh Johnson 
 
'Jeeves, I'm engaged.' 
'I hope you will be very happy, sir.' 
'Don't be an ass. I'm engaged to Miss Bassett.' 
 
Bertie is feeling most put out when he finds that his friend Gussie is seeking relationship advice from Jeeves. Meanwhile Aunt Dahlia has asked Bertie to present awards at a school prize-giving ceremony. In a stroke of genius, Bertie realises he can kill two birds with one stone, palming off his prize-giving duties to Gussie by assuring him that the object of his affections will be there. 
 
Several terrible misunderstandings later and facing chaos, Bertie turns, yet again, to Jeeves who swiftly and ingeniously saves the day. 
_________________________________________ 
'Sublime comic genius' Ben Elton 
 
'A cavalcade of perfect joy' Caitlin Moran 
 
'Sunlit perfection... Bask in its warmth and splendour' Stephen Fry 
 
'The greatest chronicler of a certain kind of Englishness' Julian Fellowes

Right Ho, Jeeves

'Without at least one impostor on the premises, Blandings Castle is never itself' 
 
Welcome to the world of the delightfully dotty Lord Emsworth, his bone-headed younger son and his long-suffering secretary. 
 
Having returned home with a valuable Egyptian amulet, Lord Emsworth finds his home contains not one but two imposters intent on taking it off his hands. But with no real sense of how the amulet came to be in his pocket in the first place, things get a lot more complicated very quickly...

Something Fresh

(Blandings Castle)

'There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, "Do trousers matter?"' 
 
'The mood will pass, sir.' 
 
Aunt Dahlia has tasked Bertie with purloining an antique cow creamer from Totleigh Towers. In order to do so, Jeeves hatches a scheme whereby Bertie must charm the droopy and altogether unappealing Madeline and face the wrath of would-be dictator Roderick Spode. Though the prospect fills him with dread, when duty calls, Bertie will answer, for Aunt Dahlia will not be denied. 
 
In a plot that swiftly becomes rife with mishaps, it is Jeeves who must extract his master from trouble. Again.

The Code of the Woosters

John Grisham

The bestselling novel behind the iconic movie Christmas with the Kranks 
 
Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded shops, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes and no unwanted presents. 
 
That's just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they'll kip the holiday altogether. 
 
Theirs will be the only house on the street without decorations, a Christmas Eve bash or even a tree. Because come December 25th, they're setting sail on a Caribbean cruise. 
 
But, as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences - and isn't half as easy as they'd imagined . . .

Skipping Christmas

Christmas with The Kranks

David Jason

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER: a hilarious and heartfelt new autobiography from the national treasure Sir David Jason 
 
'There are British telly icons and then there is Sir David Jason. This book is such gold . . . an absolute delight' ZOE BALL 
___________________________ 
 
'During my life and career I have been given all sorts of advice and learned huge amounts from some great and enormously talented people. I've been blessed to play characters such as Derek Trotter, Granville, Pop Larkin and Frost, who have changed my life in all sorts of ways, and taught me lessons that go far beyond the television set. And I've worked a few things out for myself as well, about friendship, ambition, rejection, success, failure, adversity and fortune. 
 
With any luck, some of these thoughts and observations will chime with episodes and challenges you have faced, or are facing, in your own life. And if they don't. . . well, hopefully, at the very least you'll get to have a good old laugh at my expense. 
 
So lean back, pour yourself a glass, and try not to fall through the bar flap . . .' 
___________________________ 
 
'An absolute delight . . . a romp with so much detail. Offers wisdom in difficult times . . . like being invited into his living room' BBC BREAKFAST 
 
'It's beautifully written . . . so conversational and chatty . . . it's so lovely and warm' CHRIS MOYLES

A Del of a Life

The hilarious #1 bestseller from the national treasure

Clare Chambers

From the highly-acclaimed author of SMALL PLEASURES - winner of the 2022 British Book Awards Page-Turner 
 
____________________ 
In 1976 four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them... 
 
And repercussions are just what Guy doesn't need: his wife, Jane, is moving swiftly from slightly eccentric to downright peculiar, their three-year-old daughter seems set on destroying Jane's sanity, and now even God's gone quiet on him. 
 
As for Nina, she's having enough trouble with her son, James. He's got exams looming, a new girlfriend with pneumatic breasts and now, it seems, he's on drugs. Nina certainly won't welcome any ghosts from the past. 
 
Life isn't going smoothly for anyone. But when Hugo, long-forgotten agent of misfortune, threatens to pay them all a visit, disaster seems unavoidable. 
____________________ 
Praise for Clare Chambers: 
 
'A wonderful novel. I loved it' Nina Stibbe on Small Pleasures 
 
'Gorgeous... If you're looking for something escapist and bittersweet, I could not recommend more' Pandora Sykes on Small Pleasures 
 
'An irresistible novel - wry, perceptive and quietly devastating' Mail on Sunday on Small Pleasures 
 
'Chambers' eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity' Guardian on Small Pleasures 
 
'An almost flawlessly written tale of genuine, grown-up romantic anguish' Sunday Times on Small Pleasures

A Dry Spell

From the highly-acclaimed author of SMALL PLEASURES - winner of the 2022 British Book Awards Page-Turner 
 
____________________ 
On the brink of forty, newly single with a failed business, Philip thought he'd reached an all-time low. 
 
It only needed a discarded chip on a South London street to lay him literally flat. So, bedbound and bored, Philip naturally starts to write the story of his life. 
 
But between the mundane catalogue of seaside holidays and bodged DIY, broken relationships and unspoken truths, more surprises are revealed - both comic and touching - than Philip or his family ever bargained for. Perhaps there will even be a happy ending... 
 
 
Praise for Clare Chambers: 
 
'A funny book which slips in some acute and painful observations on the side' The Times 
 
'Chambers' eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity' Guardian on Small Pleasures 
 
'A funny and moving story with a great deal of style' Daily Express

Back Trouble

'So charming' Marian Keyes 
 
From the highly-acclaimed author of SMALL PLEASURES - winner of the 2022 British Book Awards Page-Turner 
 
When aspiring novelist Christopher Flinders drops out of university to write his masterpiece (in between shifts as a fish delivery man and builder's mate), his family is sceptical. 
 
 But when he is taken up by the London editor Owen Goddard and his charming wife Diana it seems success is just around the corner. Christopher's life has so far been rather short of charm - growing up in an unlovely suburb, with unambitious parents and a semi-vagrant brother - and he is captivated by his generous and cultured mentors. 
 
 However, on the brink of realising his dream, Christopher makes a desperate misjudgement which results in disaster for all involved. Shattered, he withdraws from London and buries himself in rural Yorkshire, embracing a career and a private life marked by mediocrity. 
 
 Twenty years on, a young academic researching into Owen Goddard seeks him out, and Christopher is forced to exhume his past, setting him on a path to a life-changing discovery. 
 
 
Praise for Clare Chambers: 
 
'Thoroughly enjoyable and very clever' Sunday Express 
 
'Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind' Lissa Evans on Small Pleasures 
 
'Beautifully observed and achingly funny' Woman &amp; Home 
 
 'Chambers' eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity' Guardian on Small Pleasures 
 
 'Reminds us of the rare pleasure that an intelligent tale with a happy ending brings' The Sunday Times

The Editor's Wife

Stephen Fry

A mind-bending, time travelling comedy from British actor, comedian, author, presenter, journalist and national treasure, Stephen Fry. 
 _______ 
 
 Michael Young is a brilliant young history student whose life is changed when he meets Leo Zuckerman, an ageing physicist with a theory that can change worlds. 
 
Together they realise that they have the power to alter history and eradicate a great evil. But tinkering with timelines is more dangerous than they can imagine and nothing - past, present or future - will ever be the same again. 
 
 Making History is funny, moving, romantic and told with Stephen Fry's characteristic skill and brilliance. 
 
 Praise for Making History: 
 
 'His best novel yet... an extravagant, deeply questioning work of science fiction' GQ 
 
 'Making History has the imaginative pull that keeps the pages turning while the tea gets cold and the cat gets the goldfish' The Independent 
 
 'Stephen Fry at his twinkling best' Sunday Times

Making History

Nick Pettigrew

'Anti-Social is brutally honest, exceptionally funny and terribly sad - a scything indictment of broken 21st century Britain. I could not put it down.' THE SECRET BARRISTER 
 
'A fascinating insight into a job that stitches together the cracks in compassion in our communities' RENI EDDO-LODGE, bestselling author of Why I Am No Longer Talking To White People About Race 
 
'Superb. This hysterically funny and moving memoir of an anti-social behaviour officer is a real eye-opener that hits all the right notes' FRANKIE BOYLE 
__________________ 
 
Anti-Social is the diary of a disillusioned local authority worker whose job it is to keep people happy, or at least away from each other's throats. That's hard enough at the best of times, but when your day features secret hoarders, violent disputes over dance music and litigious arms dealers, the total breakdown of local society is never far away. The only thing keeping it together are the chronically underfunded officers charged with patching the fraying threads of civilisation, and they have a hard enough time keeping themselves together. 
 
 This is an urgent, timely but, most of all, hysterically funny memoir of a life spent working with the people society wants to forget and the problems that nobody else can resolve. This book will make you laugh, cry and boil with rage, all within a single sentence. 
 
 Updated with a new chapter for the paperback edition 
__________________ 
 
'Get this book ... I'm telling you now, you will absolutely love this guy, what he has to say and the book that he has written. In equal parts devastating and dark and incredibly funny.' NIHAL ARTHANAYAKE 
 
'Laugh-out-loud funny. The delivery is punchy and the humour dark - think Irvine Welsh minus the Scottish vernacular' EXPRESS 
 
'Think Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt but with more dead bodies ... It's a gloriously cynical read but it's also sympathetic and deeply empathetic.' KATHY BURKE 
 
'Riveting and brilliantly written... a potent cocktail of heartbreak and horror; wickedly funny, wearily endearing and absolutely enraging' CAROLINE SANDERSON, Bookseller 
 
'A funny, thoughtful look into one of the toughest jobs I can imagine' SHAPPI KORSANDI 
 
'I absolutely loved it. It reads like a novel, has that page-turning quality everyone looks for in a good book but it delivers the punch that only true life can - funny obviously but with humanity and warmth for people at the edges of society most in need of our understanding and compassion' KIT DE WAAL, author of My Name Is Leon 
 
'Brilliant. This deserves to be a huge success - funny, sad and heartbreaking' LORRAINE KELLY 
 
__________________ 
Reader reviews for Anti-Social: 
 
'The timing of this book could not be better' 
'Politicians of all hues should be made to read this book' 
'Readable and compulsive' 
'Well written and stunningly well observed' 
'The author and all his long-suffering, dedicated colleagues deserve dustbin lid-sized medals' 
'It had me in stitches, it had me in tears' 
'Top-drawer stuff ... utterly riveting' 
'I don't often take the time to review books here, but would very much recommend Anti-Social.'

Anti-Social

the Sunday Times-bestselling diary of an anti-social behaviour officer

______________________________ 
The original bestselling autobiography by comedian, novelist and national treasure Stephen Fry. 
 
Few people serve time in prison before studying at Cambridge. You might be surprised to know that Stephen Fry is one of them. 
 
Moab is My Washpot, the remarkable story of Stephen Fry's tumultuous early life, is by turns funny, shocking, tender, delicious, sad, lyrical, bruisingly frank and addictively readable. 
 
It's the story of a boy sent to a boarding school 200 miles from home at the age of seven, who survives beatings, misery, love, ecstasy, carnal violation, expulsion, imprisonment, criminal conviction, probation and catastrophe to emerge, at eighteen, ready to try and face the world in which he had always felt a stranger. 
 
Fry writes with the wit and warmth which have become his hallmark, but with shocking candour too. For anyone seeking to understand one of Britain's greatest cultural treasures, this book is utterly essential reading.

Moab Is My Washpot

Ben Schott

'Peerless in its wit, elegance and silliness.’ Evening Standard BOOKS OF THE YEAR 
 
A Sunday Times PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 
__________________________________________________________________ 
 
Storm clouds loom over Europe. Treason is afoot in the highest social circles. The very security of the nation is in peril. Jeeves, it transpires, has long been an agent of British Intelligence, but now His Majesty's Government must turn to the one man who can help . . . Bertie Wooster. 
 
'A most thrilling return of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster . . . it vibrates with the spirit and the rhythms of his heart.' 
 
'Remarkably good . . . in its similes, pace and general zing, this yarn is eerily Wodehousian.'

Jeeves and the King of Clubs

'Wodehouse is a tonic' - New Yorker. 
 
A Wodehouse pick-me-up that'll lift your spirits, whatever your mood. 
 
Cheaper and more effective than Valium’.* 
 
Offers ‘relief from anxiety, raginess or an afternoon-long tendency towards the sour’.* 
 
‘Read when you’re well and when you’re poorly; when you’re travelling, and when you’re not; when you’re feeling clever, and when you’re feeling utterly dim.’* 
 
Whatever your mood, P. G. Wodehouse, widely acknowledged to be ‘the best English comic novelist of the century’*, is guaranteed to lift your spirits. 
 
Why? Because ‘Mr Wodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.’* 
 
How? ‘You don’t analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour.’* 
 
*Olivia Williams *Caitlin Moran *Lynne Truss *Sebastian Faulks *Evelyn Waugh *Stephen Fry 
 
Ever on the lookout for a quick buck, a solid gold fortune, or at least a plausible little scrounge, the irrepressible Ukridge gives con men a bad name. Looking like an animated blob of mustard in his bright yellow raincoat, he invests time, passion and energy (but seldom actual cash) in a series of increasingly bizarre money-making schemes. Shares in an accident syndicate? Easily arranged. Finance for a dog college? It's yours. 
 
And if you throw in some cats, flying unexpectedly from windows, and a young man trying ever-more-desperately to impress the family of his latest love, you get a medley of Wodehouse delights in which lunacy and comic exuberance reign supreme. 
 
Contents: 
- Goodbye to All Cats 
- Ukridge's Dog College 
- Ukridge's Accident Syndicate

Goodbye to All Cats

(Wodehouse Pick-Me-Up)

'Wodehouse is a tonic' - New Yorker. 
 
A Wodehouse pick-me-up that'll lift your spirits, whatever your mood. 
 
‘Cheaper and more effective than Valium’.* 
 
Offers ‘relief from anxiety, raginess or an afternoon-long tendency towards the sour’.* 
 
‘Read when you’re well and when you’re poorly; when you’re travelling, and when you’re not; when you’re feeling clever, and when you’re feeling utterly dim.’* 
 
Whatever your mood, P. G. Wodehouse, widely acknowledged to be ‘the best English comic novelist of the century’*, is guaranteed to lift your spirits. 
 
Why? Because ‘Mr Wodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.’* 
 
How? ‘You don’t analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour.’* 
 
*Olivia Williams *Caitlin Moran *Lynne Truss *Sebastian Faulks *Evelyn Waugh *Stephen Fry 
 
In the Angler's Rest, drinking hot scotch and lemon, sits one of Wodehouse's greatest raconteurs. Mr Mulliner, his vivid imagination lubricated by Miss Postlethwaite the barmaid, has fabulous stories to tell of the extraordinary behaviour of his far-flung family: there’s Cyril, the timid interior designer, who finds himself drunkenly playing 'this little piggy' with his beloved's formidable and angry mother's toes - how can that possibly end well?! And then there's Wilfred, who lights on the formula for Buck-U-Uppo, a tonic given to elephants to enable them to face tigers with the necessary nonchalance… Add one of the best Jeeves and Wooster stories and you’ve got a medley of Wodehouse delights in which lunacy and comic exuberance reign supreme. 
 
Contents: 
- Mulliner’s Buck-u-uppo 
- The Spot of Art 
- Strychnine in the Soup

Mulliner’s Buck-U-Uppo

'Wodehouse is a tonic' - New Yorker. 
 
A Wodehouse pick-me-up that'll lift your spirits, whatever your mood. 
 
Cheaper and more effective than Valium’.* 
 
Offers ‘relief from anxiety, raginess or an afternoon-long tendency towards the sour’.* 
 
‘Read when you’re well and when you’re poorly; when you’re travelling, and when you’re not; when you’re feeling clever, and when you’re feeling utterly dim.’* 
 
Whatever your mood, P. G. Wodehouse, widely acknowledged to be ‘the best English comic novelist of the century’*, is guaranteed to lift your spirits. 
 
Why? Because ‘Mr Wodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.’* 
 
How? ‘You don’t analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour.’* 
 
*Olivia Williams *Caitlin Moran *Lynne Truss *Sebastian Faulks *Evelyn Waugh *Stephen Fry 
 
Meet the Young Men in Spats – all members of the Drones Club, all crossed in love and all busy betting their sometimes non-existent fortunes on unlikely outcomes – that's when they're not recovering from driving their sports cars through, rather than round, Marble Arch. 
 
These wonderful comic short stories are the essence of innocent fun. Here, you'll encounter some of Wodehouse's favourite characters – and, in 'The Amazing Hat Mystery', one of his favourite stories. 
 
Contents: 
- The Amazing Hat Mystery 
- Uncle Fred Flits By 
- Trouble Down at Tudsleigh

The Amazing Hat Mystery

Lynne Truss

By the bestselling author of Eats, Shoots &amp; Leaves and Cat Out of Hell, a nail-biting tale of good versus evil involving one man, his dog and a group of 18th-century amateur scientific pioneers who just happen to be cats. 
 
When you are an inoffensive retired librarian with bitter personal experience of Evil Talking Cats, do you rescue a kitten from the cold on a December night? 
 
Do you follow up news items about cats digging in graveyards? 
 
Do you inquire into long-ago cats who voyaged around the world with Captain Cook? 
 
Well, yes. If you are Alec Charlesworth that is precisely what you do - with unexpected and terrifying consequences ...

The Lunar Cats

'Wodehouse is a tonic' - New Yorker. 
 
A Wodehouse pick-me-up that'll lift your spirits, whatever your mood. 
 
‘Cheaper and more effective than Valium’.* 
 
Offers ‘relief from anxiety, raginess or an afternoon-long tendency towards the sour’.* 
 
‘Read when you’re well and when you’re poorly; when you’re travelling, and when you’re not; when you’re feeling clever, and when you’re feeling utterly dim.’* 
 
Whatever your mood, P. G. Wodehouse, widely acknowledged to be ‘the best English comic novelist of the century’*, is guaranteed to lift your spirits. 
 
Why? Because ‘Mr Wodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.’* 
 
How? ‘You don’t analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour.’* 
 
*Olivia Williams *Caitlin Moran *Lynne Truss *Sebastian Faulks *Evelyn Waugh *Stephen Fry 
 
This collection contains two of the best Jeeves stories, in which the gentleman’s gentleman endeavours to smooth over Bertie Wooster’s relentless haplessness. Add in the story of a private detective who can make the guilty confess simply by smiling at them, told by one of Wodehouse’s greatest raconteurs, and you’ve got an assortment of Wodehouse delights in which lunacy and comic exuberance reign supreme. 
 
Contents: 
- The Smile that Wins 
- Jeeves and the Song of Songs 
- The Great Sermon Handicap

The Smile that Wins

Tim Samuels

Of the 200,000 years homo sapiens has been wandering this planet, this has to be the most absurd and challenging time to be a man… 
 
How can you hunt and gather in an open-plan office? 
Is monogamy fighting a losing battle against testes size? 
Why do men make up 95% of FTSE CEOs yet 95% of the prison population? 
 
Trapped in bodies barely changed since caveman days, males are now contending with corporate culture, lifelong commitment, rampant depression and crazy expectations to be a success at work and home. 
Enter award-winning BBC broadcaster and journalist Tim Samuels with Who Stole My Spear? &shy;- which stops at nothing to explore how men should actually be living these days. From relationships, religion, and the rise of ISIS, to porn, fatherhood and the oppression of office life. Nothing is taboo: Is it less serious when a man has an affair? Why don’t new parents want boys? 
 
Who Stole My Spear? is an inspiring rallying call for men and ‘good masculinity’ which cannot be ignored – that will leave you rethinking much about life’s big questions. And for women who wonder what’s on a man’s mind, this is the book that offers the entertainingly explosive answer.

Who Stole My Spear?

Colin Taylor

‘Policing is like this everywhere but not everywhere is Scilly’ 
 
Meet Sergeant Colin Taylor, he has been a valuable member of the police force for over 20 years, 5 of which have been spent policing the ‘quiet’ Isles of Scilly, a group of islands off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula. 
 
Colin has made it his purpose to keep the streets of Scilly free from drunk anchor thieves, Balance Board riders and other culprits, mostly drunken, intent on breaking the law. This book is the first hand account of how he did it. 
 
Coupled with his increasingly popular ‘Isle of Scilly Police Force’ Facebook page, this book charts the day to day trials and tribulations of a small-island police officer, told in a perfectly humorous and affectionate way. This book is a fantastic read and Colin's antics are soon to be the feautre of a major ITV TV series.

The Life of a Scilly Sergeant

Limmy

DAFT WEE STORIES is Limmy’s first book. 
 
It is a collection of stories. 
 
There are short stories. 
 
There are longer stories. 
 
There are stupid stories. 
 
There are thoughtful stories. 
 
There are upside-down stories. 
 
There are normal-way-up stories. 
 
There are weird stories. 
 
There are less weird stories. 
 
There are really weird stories. 
 
There is nothing else like it. 
 
Have a read.

Daft Wee Stories

Richard Webber

Many people consider Tony Hancock to be the finest comic actor of them all. November 2004 sees the 50th anniversary of his best-loved work, Hancock's Half-Hour, which began as a radio series, penned by the writers Galton and Simpson. Two years later, the first of 58 TV instalments had been screened, and Hancock's genius, coupled with Galton and Simpson's brilliant scripts, ensured that the show soon became a yardstick against which all subsequent British sitcoms have since been measured. 
Amazingly, no book has ever been written about the show. 
 
Fully authorised by Galton and Simpson, Fifty Years of Hancock's Half-Hour is a full history of the show, including how the show came about, behind-the-scenes stories from Hancock's fellow artists and members of the crew and production team, and the story of its demise. Incorporating extracts from the shows, the book will also feature photographs and a full listing of the radio and TV episodes.

Fifty Years Of Hancock's Half Hour

Bridget Christie

Bridget Christie is a stand-up comedian, idiot and feminist. On the 30th of April 2012, a man farted in the Women’s Studies Section of a bookshop and it changed her life forever. 
 
A Book For Her details Christie’s twelve years of anonymous toil in the bowels of stand-up comedy and the sudden epiphany that made her, unbelievably, one of the most critically acclaimed British stand-up comedians this decade, drawing together the threads that link a smelly smell in the women’s studies section to the global feminist struggle. 
 
Find out how nice Peter Stringfellow’s fish tastes, how yoghurt advertising perpetuates rape myths, and how Emily Bronte used a special ladies’ pen to write Wuthering Heights. 
 
If you’re interested in comedy and feminism, then this is definitely the book for you. If you hate both then I’d probably give it a miss. 
 
“Christie is adept at turning on a sixpence between being comical, or serious, or both at once, and at pricking her own earnestness.” Telegraph 
 
‘Christie piles derision and tomfoolery upon everyday sexism, while never pretending that jokes alone will solve the problem.’ Guardian

A Book for Her

Rosy Edwards

The laugh-out-loud true story of one girl's experience of life on Tinder. 
 
Rosy Edwards is the epitome of a contradictory twenty-something year old. She’s frugal when it comes to food shopping, but is willing to splash out on shampoo. She’s career minded, she just doesn’t know which career to have in mind right now. And although she’s happy being single, a part of her kind of wants a boyfriend. 
 
So after a few unsuccessful dates with friends of friends (read: being forced to date their shortest/dullest/oddest acquaintance), she put herself on Tinder, the app that has transformed the world of online dating. And she soon learns the unspoken rules the hard way: always reject a guy with black and white profile pics (he is ginger and/or ugly); is wearing a hat (bald); has a shot of his torso (moron) or is not standing beside anything scaleable (5”8 and under). 
 
And then there are the dates themselves. From a sky-high dinner date to a borderline drug bust in Chelsea, Rosy has experienced it all, swinging through her love life on the trapeze of Tinder. She falls for the wrong guys, ditches the nice ones, but can she finally find her happy ending. 
 
Brilliantly honest and hilariously funny, Rosy’s story shows us all that the key to a successful love life could just be a swipe away.

Confessions of a Tinderella

David Nobbs

Reginald Perrin is driven to desperation by the rat race and the unpunctuality of Britain's trains. As his small eccentricites escalate to the extreme heleaves the unacceptable face of capitalism behind by driving off in a stolen motorised jelly, embarking on his one-man quest to avoid an everyday existence.

______________________________________ 
A classic collection of the hilarious Reginald Perrin books: The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin, The Return of Reginald Perrin and The Better World of Reginald Perrin, immortalised in two BBC TV series, now being repeated on BBC Four. 
 
Reginald Iolanthe Perrin is surely one of the best loved comedy heroes of our time, in both literature and television. This omnibus brings together the first three Reginald Perrin novels containing a lifetime's outrageous and hilarious adventures. 
 
When we first meet Reggie, he is sick to death with selling exotic ice creams at Sunshine Desserts. Driven to desperation by the rat race and the unpunctuality of Britain's trains, Reggie's small eccentricities escalate to the extreme, until finally he leaves the unacceptable face of capitalism behind by driving off in a stolen motorised jelly. In his pursuit of the unconventional, he devotes himself to faking his own death, opening a shop devoted to selling completely useless goods, and setting up a commune strictly for the middle-class and middle-aged. 
 
Join Reggie, who didn't get where he is today without some help from some memorable supporting characters, in one man's quest to avoid an everyday existence.

Reginald Perrin Omnibus

(Reginald Perrin)

Jem Roberts

As a wise ape once observed, space is big – vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly so. However, if you look too closely at space, it becomes nothing but lumps of rock and sundry gases. Sometimes it's necessary to take a step back, and let a few billion years go by, before any of the true wonder and scope of the cosmos becomes apparent. 
 
Similarly, the late 20th century author, humorist and thinker Douglas Adams was big – vastly, hugely and thoroughly mind-bogglingly so, both in physical terms, and as a writer who has touched millions of readers, firing up millions of cerebellums all over planet Earth, for over 35 years – and for nearly half of that time, he hasn't even been alive. 
 
It would be ridiculous to pretend that Douglas Adams's life and work has gone unexamined since his dismayingly early death at 49 but throughout the decade since the last book to tackle the subject, the universes Adams created have continued to develop, to beguile and expand minds, and will undoubtedly do so for generations to come. 
 
An all-new approach to the most celebrated creation of Douglas Adams is therefore most welcome, and The Frood tells the story of Adams's explosive but agonizingly constructed fictional universe, from his initial inspirations to the posthumous sequel(s) and adaptations, bringing together a thousand tales of life as part of the British Comedy movements of the late 70s and 80s along the way. With the benefit of hindsight and much time passed, friends and colleagues have been interviewed for a fresh take on the man and his works.

The Frood

The Authorised and Very Official History of Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

John Cleese

A candid and brilliantly funny memoir... 
 
...of how a tall, shy youth from Weston-super-Mare went on to become a self-confessed comedy legend. 
 
En route, John Cleese describes his nerve-wracking first public appearance at St Peter’s Preparatory School at the age of eight and five-sixths; his endlessly peripatetic home life with parents who seemed incapable of staying in any house for longer than six months; his first experiences in the world of work as a teacher who knew nothing about the subjects he was expected to teach; his hamster-owning days at Cambridge; and his first encounter with the man who would be his writing partner for over two decades, Graham Chapman. 
 
And so on to his dizzying ascent via scriptwriting for Peter Sellers, David Frost, Marty Feldman and others to the heights of Monty Python. 
 
Punctuated from time to time with John Cleese’s thoughts on topics as diverse as the nature of comedy, the relative merits of cricket and waterskiing, and the importance of knowing the dates of all the kings and queens of England, this is a masterly performance by a former schoolmaster.

So, Anyway...

The Autobiography

Lisa Lynch

Updated with new material, The C Word is the incredibly moving, darkly humorous account of one woman's fight against breast cancer. Now a BBC Drama starring Sheridan Smith. 
 
The last thing Lisa Lynch had expected to put on her 'things to do before you're 30' list was beating breast cancer, but them's the breaks. So with her life on hold, and her mind stuffed with unspoken fears, questions and emotions, she turned to her computer and started blogging about the frustrating, life-altering, sheer pain-in-the-arse inconvenience of getting breast cancer at the age of 28. 
 
The C-Word is an unflinchingly honest and darkly humorous account of Lisa's battle with The Bullshit, as she came to call it. From the good days when she could almost pretend it wasn't happening, to the bad days, when she couldn't bear to wake up, Lisa's story is emotional, heartbreaking and often hilarious. The C-Word will make you laugh and cry, and ultimately reaffirm your faith in life.

The C-Word

Tracy Bloom

A very funny Christmas novel, from the bestselling author of No-One Ever Has Sex on a Tuesday and Single Woman Seeks Revenge. 
 
There comes a time in every woman’s life when the only answer is to marry George Clooney. 
 
For Michelle, that time is now. 
 
Slogging her guts out in a chicken factory, whilst single-handedly bringing up a teenager who hates her, is far from the life that 36-year-old Michelle had planned. 
 
But marrying the most amazing man on the planet by Christmas could change all that, couldn’t it? 
 
Sometimes your only option is to dream the impossible - because you never know where it might take you… 
 
 
This is a fun, completely fantastical novel featuring George Clooney, and has not been authorised or endorsed by the wondrous man himself.

I Will Marry George Clooney (By Christmas)

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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