Steve Roud was Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and served as Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society for over fifteen years. He has been researching British folklore for over thirty years and is the joint author of the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, plus other books on traditional drama and folk song, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, which won the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2004. His publications include London Lore (2008) and The Lore of the Playground (2010). He also compiles the Folk Song Index and the Broadside Index, two internationally acclaimed computer databases of traditional folk and popular song. He lives in Sussex.

Steve Roud

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From conkers to marbles, from British Bulldog to tag, not forgetting 'one potato, two potato' and 'eeny, meeny, miny, mo', The Lore of the Playground looks at the games children have enjoyed, the rhymes they have chanted and the rituals and traditions they have observed over the past hundred years and more. 
 
Each generation, it emerges, has had its own favourites - hoops and tops in the 1930s, clapping games more recently. Some pastimes, such as skipping, have proved remarkably resilient, their complicated rules carefully handed down from one class to the next. Many are now the stuff of distant memory. And some traditions have proved to be strongly regional, loved by children in one part of the country, unknown to those elsewhere. All are brilliantly and meticulously recorded by Steve Roud, who has drawn on interviews with hundreds of people aged from 8 to 80 to create a fascinating picture of all our childhoods.

The Lore of the Playground

One hundred years of children's games, rhymes and traditions

Pregnancy and childbirth remains a mystical and magical time, characterised by feelings of hope, uncertainty and worry. No matter how many scientific innovations come along, there's still room for home-grown beliefs and traditions handed down through the family. Couples buying a pram may still ask for it to be delivered after the birth, and some grandparents will shrink from tickling the baby's feet in case it grows up to have a stammer. Monday's Child is Fair of Face gathers together these beliefs and customs, explaining how and why they arose, in which parts of the country they have been particularly popular, and to what extent they survive today. Arranged thematically, it's the perfect book to dip into, and its mixture of familiar, unfamiliar and frankly bizarre beliefs makes for compelling reading.

Monday's Child is Fair of Face

and Other Traditional Beliefs about Babies and Motherhood

Tim Benson

A cartoon companion to an unprecedented year in politics. 
 
 2020 will forever be remembered as the year of coronavirus: twelve months in which we collectively forgot about Brexit, to turn our attention to the NHS, furloughs and social distancing. All of us, that is, apart from Britain's political cartoonists. Here, our finest satirists turn their eyes to Covid and much more: from the never-ending Brexit psychodrama to the Labour leadership election to the next US president. Featuring the work of Steve Bell, Peter Brookes and Nicola Jennings, Britain's Best Political Cartoons is your trusty companion to another year of turmoil, tantrums and Trump.

Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2020

Bringing much-needed humour to a chaotic year, this cartoon companion features the most hilarious and incisive cartoons by Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Nicola Jennings and many more of the nation's finest cartoonists. 
 
2021 is turning out to be another extraordinary year, from Covid crises and vaccine victories to lockdown learning, haddock havoc and Capitol coups. But, then, it has also been a very familiar story of Brexit blunders and Trumpian tantrums. The nation's greatest cartoonists have recorded it all with searing wit and astonishing creativity. Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2021 brings together cartoons from the nation's finest satirists, along with captions from Britain's leading cartoon expert, to tell the story of another tumultuous twelve months.

Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2021

____________ 
A blockbuster collection of the year’s funniest political cartoons, featuring the work of Mac, Steve Bell, Peter Brookes and many more . . . 
 
2018 was the year that Brexit got serious, royals got married, football got (briefly) feverish, and Trump got transformed into a giant baby blimp. In Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2018, our very finest satirists turn their eyes and their pens to all these events and more, offering an incisive and often hilarious tour through a tumultuous twelve months.

Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2018

A hilarious companion to the year’s political turmoil, featuring the work of Martin Rowson, Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Nicola Jennings and many more . . . 
 
2019 was the year of Brexit, obviously. But it was also the year that Donald Trump went haywire over Huawei, Theresa May got bounced by the backstop, Boris Johnson was hoisted into high office, and the country was corralled into a chaotic Christmas election. In Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2019, our very finest satirists skewer everything from Kremlin collusion to no-deal confusion, offering a riotous ride through the last twelve months. And did we mention Brexit?

Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2019

P.G. Wodehouse

Set inside Blandings Castle, this comedy series follows Lord Emsworth and his pig Empress as they meet with his dysfunctional family and friends, and the havoc that follows.

EPISODE 1 IN A MAJOR BBC DRAMA STARRING TIMOTHY SPALL, DAVID WALLIAMS AND JENNIFER SAUNDERS 
 
Clarence has to get his pig eating again or lose the fat-pig prize to his arch nemesis. 
 
Lord Clarence Emsworth’s pride and joy, the prize-winning pig Empress of Blandings refuses to eat when Cyril the pig-man is jailed by Clarence’s conniving rival Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe. 
 
With the prize’s weigh-in only two-weeks away, Clarence and his gambling, spendthrift son Freddie are desperate to get the Empress to eat. 
 
Meanwhile, Clarence’s sister Connie attempts to thwart her niece Angela’s love affair with ex-cowboy Jimmy and instead find her a more eminent match in the smarmy Heacham – Sir Gregory’s nephew! 
 
'Sublime comic genius' 
Ben Elton 
 
'You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour.' 
Stephen Fry 
 
'The funniest writer ever to put words to paper.' 
Hugh Laurie 
 
'P.G. Wodehouse remains the greatest chronicler of a certain kind of Englishness, that no one else has ever captured quite so sharply, or with quite as much wit and affection.' 
Julian Fellowes

Blandings: Pig-Hoo-o-o-o-ey!

(Episode 1)

Rabia Chaudry

AFTER 23 YEARS IN PRISON, ADNAN'S CONVICTION HAS FINALLY BEEN OVERTURNED - BUT HAE MIN LEE'S REAL KILLER IS STILL OUT THERE. 
 
'This book provides a far stronger argument . . . than Syed's defence lawyer did in 1999' INDEPENDENT 
 
'The first letter I received after being arrested in 1999 was from Rabia. Since that time until now, she has believed in my innocence and been committed to my exoneration . . . There is no one better to help tell my story, and no one that I trust more to tell it, than Rabia.' ADNAN SYED 
_________________________________________________ 
THE CASE THAT INSPIRED THE PODCAST PHENOMENON SERIAL, AND THE HBO DOCUSERIES THE CASE AGAINST ADNAN SYED 
 
On February 28, 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus thirty years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland. From the moment of his arrest, Syed has consistently maintained his innocence. Rabia Chaudry, a family friend, always believed him and has never given up the hope that he might someday be released. By 2013, however, after almost all appeals had been exhausted, things looked bleak. That's when Rabia contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer at This American Life, in the hopes of finding a journalist who would bring greater attention to Adnan's story and might shed new light on the case. Koenig's investigation turned into Serial, an international phenomenon and Peabody Award-winning podcast. 
 
In 2022, after 23 years in prison, Adnan's conviction was overturned, and he was finally freed. But Hae Min Lee's real killer is still out there. 
 
Adnan's Story re-examines the investigation that led to Adnan Syed's arrest, shares his life in prison, covers new evidence and possibilities that have since come to light, and reviews the recent court successes - including a ruling by a Maryland judge to reopen Syed's case. Woven with personal reflections from Adnan himself, including new never-before-seen letters he penned from prison, the story of his family, community, and public advocate Chaudry, the book gives brilliant insight into the story that captivated the attention of millions as his legal team and investigatory team, along with countless others who have crowd-sourced an investigation like never before, seek to exonerate him and find out the truth of what really happened on that day in 1999. 
 
But this is not only a personal story, but a testament to a thoroughly broken system that convicts tens of thousands of innocent people, and how the power of the media and public can move rigid institutions to bring about justice.

Adnan's Story

The Case That Inspired the Podcast Phenomenon Serial

James Patterson

Cory Friedman was an ordinary fun-loving little boy. That fateful March morning in 1989 started just like any other but later that day, he started to feel very different and the course of his life was set to change. It started with an irresistible urge to shake his head, and before long, his body became a volatile, explosive and unpredictable force. Overtaken by physical urges, tics and compulsions, the bright young boy started to feel and look like a puppet on a string. 
 
Cory had developed a rare combination of Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anxiety Disorder and other neurological conditions. The life he knew had been torn apart and his family was left watching him suffer. Desperate to help and hopeful of a cure, they embarked on a fifteen year plight which took them beyond breaking point. Cory was seen by thirteen doctors who in total prescribed sixty potent medicines. He was mistakenly sent to a psychiatric ward and. On the brink of utter despair, he and his family decided to try a form of intervention that had never been tried in cases such as Cory's: he was sent to a wilderness survival camp in a bitter, unforgiving snowy Utah winter. This felt like their final chance. 
 
Throughout his young life, Cory struggled to have the same childhood and adolescence as his friends. From time to time an overwhelming anger and frustration overcame him when one doctor after another and an unprecedented number of medicines continually failed him. Still, throughout it all, Cory battled against the extraordinary events that were unfolding, and would take him on one of the most terrifying personal journeys ever recorded. 
 
Torn Apart is a true story of one family's courage, heartbreak, sacrifice and ultimately, triumph.

Torn Apart

The Heartbreaking Story of a Childhood Lost

EPISODE 4 IN A MAJOR BBC DRAMA STARRING TIMOTHY SPALL, DAVID WALLIAMS AND JENNIFER SAUNDERS 
Baxter returns as summer tutor for Clarence’s grandson George and plans to weasel his way back into permanent employment. 
 
Blandings is threatened by the return of tyrannical secretary Baxter, hired by Connie to put an end to all tom-foolery. This is a tragedy for Clarence and he finds an unusual ally in his grandson George, who had been happily rampaging through the grounds with an air rifle. 
 
It is not long before there is an outbreak of shooting and wounding. Meanwhile, Freddie is back to ask Clarence to clear his debts, this time pursued by East-End gangsters and a beguiling dancer who takes a fancy to Beach. 
 
‘Sublime comic genius’ 
Ben Elton 
 
‘You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour.’ 
Stephen Fry 
 
‘The funniest writer ever to put words to paper.’ 
Hugh Laurie 
 
‘P.G. Wodehouse remains the greatest chronicler of a certain kind of Englishness, that no one else has ever captured quite so sharply, or with quite as much wit and affection.’ 
Julian Fellowes

Blandings: The Crime Wave at Blandings

(Episode 4)

Samantha Phillips

Charlotte Christie is under no illusion about her job: at Fitzgerald Denton greed is good and you watch your back. But as she learns to handle the jokes and the backstabbing and prove her worth as a broker. Charlie unearths a scam. Almost untraceable, it could strike a deathblow to Lloyd's of London and bring the government to its knees. By avoiding Charlie, her opponents have made their single mistake. She has one chance to strike back.

Blonde Ambition

No Such Thing As A Fish

__________ 
‘My favourite geeks. Hilarious. Sideways. Brilliant.’ Tim Minchin 
 
In a year dominated by Russian collusion and Brexit confusion, The Book of the Year returns with another dose of barely believable yet wholly unimpeachable facts and stories from the past twelve months. 
 
Every week for the past four years, Dan, James, Anna and Andy – the creators of the award-winning, chart-topping comedy podcast No Such Thing As A Fish – have wowed each other and millions of their listeners with the most astonishing trivia they have learned over the previous seven days. Now, once again, they have put down the microphones, picked up their pencils, and transformed a year’s worth of weird and wonderful happenings into one uplifting book that you won’t be able to put down. 
 
Discover how Peruvian mummies affected the World Cup, and why Love Island contestants are experts in game theory – as well as hundreds of stories that may have passed you by entirely, including the news that: 
 
· NASA sent a man with a fear of heights to the International Space Station. 
· An ice hotel in Canada caught fire. 
· Mark Zuckerberg’s private data was compromised while he was talking to Congress about compromised data. 
 
From Kim Jong Un’s personal potty to Jeremy Corbyn’s valuable vegetables, The Book of the Year 2018 is an eye-opening tour of yet another incredible year you didn’t know you’d lived through.

The Book of the Year 2018

Your Definitive Guide to the World’s Weirdest News

Jeremy Beadle

This is the remarkable, and sometimes shocking, life story of one of the most famous faces of British television. Born with a rare disease called Poland Syndrome, which meant he spent most of his first two years in and out of hospital, Jeremy Beadle was brought up in a poor, single-parent family. He was repeatedly expelled from school for his practical jokes before taking on a variety of jobs while writing for shows in his spare time. His big break came when Bob Monkhouse took him on to write for Celebrity Squares. His first show, Game for a Laugh, although being branded as 'vulgar' and subsequently rejected by the BBC, spent five years at the top of the ratings and turned him into a household name. The inter-nationally acclaimed Beadle's About and You've Been Framed took the TV ratings by storm and here he reveals the secret techniques employed and recalls the hilarious disasters from behind the scenes. He breaks his silence over his encounters with the Royals, including the prank he played on Prince Charles and also frankly discusses the nature of 'fame' and the British media, after being branded Britain's second most hated man by Punch. Usually fiercely protective of his family, he talks openly about them for the first time, and of the absent father he never knew.

Watch Out!

Mark Wallington

Boogie is an unattractive but street-wise mongrel from Stockwell, used to travelling everywhere on London Transport. His two-legged companion is Mark. This is a heroic study of survival against the odds, as together they take a journey, up hill and down dale, with rucksacks full of kennomeat, along Britain's longest coastal footpath - from Somerset to Devon, from Cornwall to Dorset.

Five Hundred Mile Walkies

Four Finger Discount

Remember when The Simpsons was the funniest show on television? 
 
The Simpsons is the longest running comedy in history. Gracing our screens since 1989, with over 600 episodes, the show is a cultural phenomenon. Whilst it is still drawing huge ratings numbers, there is no argument that during the 90s the show was at its zenith. 
 
No other comedy has had as big an impact on society. The Simpsons has influenced the way we communicate with each other. Niche quotes and references have become the secret handshake of millions around the world. In the course of this book, we remember the iconic characters – Hank Scorpio and Lionel Hutz, Rex Banner and Frank Grimes - and we dissect seminal episodes such as Cape Feare, Marge Vs the Monorail and Who Shot Mr. Burns. 
 
From celebrity cameos to musical moments, from hidden jokes to insane trivia, this is the essential companion to golden age of The Simpsons. Homer’s Odyssey is a hilarious, intelligent and in-depth analysis of the greatest show on earth. 
 
So grab yourself a Flaming Moe, settle in to your groove on the couch, and enjoy our guide to your favourite yellow family.

Homer's Odyssey

An Embiggened Simpsons Guide

Vincent Shanley

John Golds

Education is one aspect of life which we all share, and consequently it provides a common interest. Memories of our own education and school life frequently impinge on our psyche, espcially if we have children undergoing the process. Too often these memories are soberring remiscences punctuated by humeorous recollections which prompt the wry smile and the oft-qupoted anecdote. While Education is a very serious subject, it does have a lighter side which in these days of cutbacks, inspections and media-concentration, helps releiieve the tension. This book is a collection of mad imprints, daft headlines and humorous anecdotes relation to the world of Education. More often than not it is the unintentional jokes which are the funniest, and its compilation contains the most amusing and comical. Suspecting a hidden agenda behind Meredith's accusations, he sets out to clear his name, whatever the consequences and whatever price he has to pay to achieve it.

Classroom Clangers

Jilly Cooper

'Men, according to legend, want only one thing, are deceivers ever, are not interested in gossip, like a cosy armful, need two eggs, and seldom wash behind their ears.' 
 
Whatever their grading, Super Man or Slob, Jilly submits all men to remorseless scrutiny. In public and in private, home, office or bed, none escapes her beady eye - from painters to politicians, guardsmen to gigolos, stockbrokers to sex-fiends, this is Jilly Cooper's brilliantly funny guide to the male sex.

Men and Supermen

David Bellamy

David Bellamy is a natural story teller whose memoir will be packed full of funny anecdotes and observations. It is the story of how a city boy, brought up in the middle of London, went for a trip into the countryside one day, an event which was to transform his life by setting in motion the amazing love of nature which would make famous this larger-than-life character. In his infectious style he illumines on, amongst other things, the fact that his father, the manager of a branch of Boots, had to grease his hair straight - because in those days managers of Boots weren't allowed to have curly hair! Then there was the time he and his brother discovered an exploded bomb, kept in the garden shed - and then accidentally blew off the front of the house with it. He reveals his secret passion is  ballet dancing - and how his mother only found out about it when she saw him on stage at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon.  His career as an academic, then author, broadcaster, consultant and television personality, spans 35 years and his main passion - campaigning for the environment - have led to many adventures including his being twice imprisoned in the Third World.

Jolly Green Giant

Neal Thompson

One of the most successful entertainment figures of his time, Robert Ripley’s life is the stuff of a classic American fairy tale. Bucktoothed and hampered by shyness, Ripley turned his sense of being an outsider into an appreciation of the weird and wonderful. He sold his first cartoon to LIFE magazine at eighteen, but it was his wildly popular ‘Believe It or Not!’ radio shows that won him international fame, and spurred him on to search the globe’s farthest corners for bizarre facts, human curiosities and shocking phenomena. 
 Ripley delighted in making preposterous declarations that somehow turned out to be true – such as that Charles Lindburgh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic or that ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ was not the USA’s national anthem. And he demanded respect for those who were labelled ‘eccentrics’ or ‘freaks’ – whether it be E. L. Blystone, who wrote 2,871 alphabet letters on a grain of rice, or the man who could swallow his own nose. By the 1930s, Ripley possessed a wide fortune, a private yacht and a huge mansion stocked with such oddities as shrunken heads and medieval torture devices. His pioneering firsts in print, radio and television tapped into something deep in the American consciousness – a taste for the titillating and exotic, and a fascination with the fastest, biggest, wackiest and weirdest – and ensured a worldwide legacy that continues today. 
 This compelling biography portrays a man who was dedicated to exalting the strange and unusual – but who may have been the most amazing oddity of all.

A Curious Man

The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert 'Believe It or Not' Ripley

Few contemporaries captured Britain’s indomitable wartime spirit as well or as wittily as the cartoonist Carl Giles. Now, for the first time, the very best of the cartoons he produced between 1939 and 1945 are brought together, including many that have not seen the light of day in over 75 years. 
 
As a young cartoonist at Reynold’s News and then the Daily Express, Giles's work provided a crucial morale boost – and much-needed laughs – to a population suffering daily privations and danger, and Giles's War shows why. Here are his often hilarious takes on the great events of the war – from the Fall of France, via D-Day, to the final Allied victory – but also his wryly amusing depictions of ordinary people in extraordinary times, living in bombed-out streets, dealing with food shortages, coping with blackouts, railing against bureaucracy and everyday annoyances. It's a brilliantly funny chronicle of our nation’s finest hour, as well as a fitting tribute to one of our greatest cartoonists.

Giles's War

Whatever their grading, Super Woman or Slut, Jilly submits all women to remorseless scrutiny. In public and private, home, office or bed, none escapes her beady eye- from debs to divorcees, models to maiden aunts, tarts to Tory ladies, this is Jilly Cooper's brilliantly funny guide to the female sex.

Women And Superwomen

Tony Warren MBE

The time is the swinging 60s, and with his inimitable warmth, wit and dazzling style, Tony Warren takes us on the trip of a lifetime. From a Manchester unfolding its post-war wings, to the London of Carnaby Street and the King's Road and on to San Francisco, the mecca of Flower Power, we join his unforgettable cast of characters as they journey through all that was good - and bad - about that sparkling decade.

Foot of the Rainbow

Gavin Edwards

People love Bill Murray movies, but even more, they love crazy stories about Bill Murray out in the world. 
Bill reads poetry to construction workers. Bill joins in strangers' kickball games. Bill steals a golf cart in Stockholm. Bill follows the Roots – a hip hop band – around. Bill pays a kid $5 to ride his bicycle into a swimming pool. 
 
The most popular Bill Murray story of all time (which he will neither confirm nor deny): on a crowded street, he puts his hands over a stranger's eyes from behind and says "Guess who?" When he lifts his hands to reveal his identity as Bill Murray, he tells the gobsmacked stranger, "No one will ever believe you." 
 
For The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing, best-selling author Gavin Edwards tracked down the best authentic Bill Murray stories. People savour these anecdotes; they consume them with a bottomless hunger; they routinely turn them into viral hits. 
 
The book not only has the greatest hits of Bill's eye-opening interactions with the world, it puts them in the context of a larger philosophy (revealed to the author in an exclusive interview): Bill Murray is secretly teaching us all how to live our lives.

The Tao of Bill Murray

Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing

David Lines

Continuing the tradition of parodying all things sacred, the author of The XXXX Files and PMT takes up the reigns of satire by rewriting the essential 1970s hippy handbook Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Instead of a seagull for a hero, this updated classic features a bloated, cynical, grungy pigeon, who looks not to the skies for inspiration, but to the London Underground. Cutting corners wherever possible and living the life of a fully fledged MTV-generation feral pigeon, Jonathan's rite of passage is more a celebration of modern-day teenage apathy set against a backdrop of 90s Pop Culture and Victorian underground architecture than a voyage of delicious self-discovery. Matching the original page-for-page in content and layout, Jonathan Livingston Trafalgar Square Pigeon is a modern-day morality tale that will, by its very nature, attract plenty of attention whilst ever so gently ruffling a few feathers along the way.

Jonathan Livingston Trafalgar Square Pigeon

Richard Bacon

Have you ever been stitched up to the national press by your best mate? 
 
Or unintentionally upset a band with a slip of the tongue on a live TV show? 
 
Or ruined a dinner party by transforming everything alcoholic into water? 
 
Hello. I’m Richard Bacon and this is A Series of Unrelated Events. All of the stories are true. All of them happened to me. I’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to (you’re welcome). 
 
So now, if you should ever find yourself sobbing on top of a box of gherkins in the stockroom of a Mansfield McDonald’s… having a Twitter conversation with your mum while she’s pretending to be an illiterate dog… performing stand-up to an audience who are funnier than you are… or just letting down all of the children of Great Britain… 
 
…you’ll know exactly what to do.

A Series of Unrelated Events

Vincent Bugliosi

Part Seven: Murder in the Wind 
 
Three female members of the Manson family attempt to testify that they committed the murder without the aid of Charles Manson, prompting Manson himself to speak, martyring himself as the leader of what he calls 'wayward men'. 
 
Manson’s attorney, Ronald Hughes, fails to appear at court. Had he been killed by the Family?

Helter Skelter: Part Seven of the Shocking Manson Murders

Ryan Mathews

Watts Wacker

In The Deviant's Advantage, Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker demonstrate how ideas create increasingly profitable markets as they move from The Fringe, to the Edge, to the Realm of the Cool, to the Next Big Thing, to Social Convention. The book tracks the products and people haunting the fringes of sex, science, art, language, faith, war and marketing, branding and macro-economics. Tomorrow's commercial success is an obsession in the mind of today's deviant. Las Vegas is a perfect example: it morphed from a bus stop in the desert to a neon 'Sin City' and finally into a family vacation destination. In 1945 a handsome, murderous sociopath called Benny 'Bugsy' Siegel decided to build a luxury gambling oasis in the desert. At the time, Las Vegas was a crossroads in the middle of the desert. Siegel understood the emerging desire for escape in the American psyche - and out of nothing, created what became an enormous gambling haven. Las Vegas has now transformed itself into a gigantic family-oriented theme park, albeit one with slots and roulette wheels. It's become a holiday destination for the entire family, not just a place that fathers sneak off to. Las Vegas moved from the Fringe (Bugsy's original vision), to the Edge (the first hotel), to the Realm of the Cool (where everyone wanted to go), to the Next Big Thing (where everyone went), to Social Convention.

The Deviant's Advantage

How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets

Sebastian Faulks

Robinson Crusoe discovers thousands of ‘half-naked savages’ having it large on Ibiza. 
 
James Bond is on a mission, as a 24-hour call-out plumber. 
 
‘The young stable lad is a moody fellow,’ say reviewers of Wuthering Heights in The Good Hotel Guide. 
 
Hans Christian Andersen gets into the subprime mortgage racket. 
 
Stephen King attempts a love story that doesn’t involve buckets of blood. 
 
Robbie Burns cheers on Andy Murray at Wimbledon. 
 
And Harry Potter is left high and dry when Ginny kicks him out and keeps the house. 
 
Re-mixed and re-imagined, this is literature but not as you know it.

Pistache Returns

Michael Barrymore

In June 1994, Michael Barrymore, television celebrity and gameshow host, checked himself out of an American clinic where he was receiving treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. Father Martin's 'Ashley' is a rehabilitation centre in Maryland, USA, where Michael lived for thirty days with members of almost every community in America, all seeking the common goal of sobriety. Michael's day-to-day account of that month in his life provides a candid, sometimes painful, funny and revelatory story of human endurance, challenges the stereotyped view of rehab, and allows the reader a first-hand insight into the disease of addiction.

Back In Business

Simon Bond

Howard Marks

Howard Marks is king of the dope-smoking world: Mr Nice is now at a staggering half a million copies sold, and the Book of Dope Stories has sold 100,000 copies in six months. Simon Bond is a well-known cartoonist: the classic 101 Uses For A Dead Cat came out in an omnibus edition last year - twenty years after it was first published. 101 Uses For A Dead Roach will be a humour classic - 101 cartoons ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, of how to use the un-useable part of your joint.

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