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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Laura Belbin

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'I just howled. Bloomin' love you' Giovanna Fletcher 
 
'You're hilarious. Thank you for making me laugh every day' Mrs Hinch 
 
 
When does Mary Effing Poppins arrive? 
 
Laura Belbin survived hitting her thirties (oh, to be wrinkle-free again), anxiety (just), motherhood (two adorable little shits) and the new body that went with it (a left tit that sags slightly more than the right, anyone?). In Knee Deep in Life she gives a fearless and filthy account of her transformation from no-responsibilities woman to being in demand 24/7, the heartaches and humiliations, and most importantly, her (definitely-pushed-to-the-limits-but-totally-indestructible) marriage to Steve, the man who helped her to hold it together when post-natal depression kicked in. 
 
 
Full of heart and wit - not to mention swearing that would make a sailor blush - this is the beast of a book Laura intends on riding into the hands of those people who doubt themselves every single day: the ones who have struggled to accept the way they look; the mums-to-be about to find themselves taking their first step towards parenthood; and the women bossing it like badasses every single day but never getting the credit they deserve. You are more than enough.

Knee Deep in Life

Wife, Mother, Realist… and why we’re already enough

Jonathan Swan

Over 2,000 sporting funnies from every sport: football, rugby, cricket, golf, boxing, 
snooker and beyond... 
 
Two men fishing on a river bank in a canal in London on a Saturday afternoon miles away from a radio or TV. Suddenly one man turns to the other and says, 'Spurs have lost again.' The other man is astonished and says, 'How on earth do you know that?' The other man replies, 'It's quarter to five.' 
 
After the success of the George Foreman grill, Audley Harrison is launching his own toaster. The problem is it can only do four rounds. 
 
What does Steve Harmison put in his hands to make sure the next ball almost always takes a wicket? A bat

Funny Shaped Balls

The Biggest Book of Sporting Jokes Ever

Jason Manford

The is the tale of a cheeky little sod from Salford called Jason growing up surrounded by his properly funny and most definitely shameless family and his discovery that being funny might actually get him somewhere. Other than detention, mugged, dumped or sacked that is. 
 
It's about being part of a big, northern, working-class family forever struggling with money, but never short on laughs or misadventures, who show that when the chips are down what really matters is sticking together.

Brung Up Proper

My Autobiography

Mel Giedroyc

'I'm 35 years old. A low-ranking TV personality. Rather immature and carefree, my only responsibility to date has been a guinea pig. All that's about to change. I'm pregnant, and now I've become a cheddar cheese junkie, inseparable from my dungarees. Help!' 
 
Who can Mel turn to? 
 
Pen, her best friend, who is still annoyingly carefree and single, and whose effect on Mel is like an injection of pure caffeine to the system? 
 
Jools, the hippy who recommends basil nosegay for labour pains and placenta pate canapes when entertaining? 
 
Amanda, the well-heeled, pregnant-friend-from-Hell who, only weeks after her textbook delivery, is planning to have her firstborn taught to ski? 
 
Kate, Mel's sister and mother of two, whose offspring are inclined towards dangerous Captain Hook impersonations and sudden mood swings? 
 
Mel's mother, who got Mel through babyhood by way of regular coffee mornings and who impresses on her the importance of portable 1950s baby gear that looks about as foldable as a Transit van? 
 
Dan, the dad-to-be, who suddenly stops going to the pub to concentrate on Mel's dietary requirements and has adopted the sinister habit of always keeping a tape measure attached to his belt?

From Here To Maternity

Ted L Nancy

Ted L Nancy continues his gently surreal correspondence with the great and the good. His hilarious and bizarre letters - as before with unusual queries, complaints and requests - not only manage to fool many recipients into starchy and strait-laced answers but in some cases elicit equally hilarious, tongue-in-cheek replies. Ted writes to ask a certain soft drink giant if it's okay to sell his own 'Kiet Doke' brand of soda (in case it harms their sales) and contacts a restaurant to ask if he can bring his own waiter, as 'he brings me my soup hot and my salad with just the right amount of dressing'. That Ted can bring out people's welcoming and hospitable side with a letter detailing the problem of the permanent squeak he suffers when walking is a tribute to his unique style. Innocent as it is at turns outrageous, More Letters from a Nut is totally enthralling and painfully funny: 'Dear Mayor's Office: I want to give back to the community. I want to stage the play "Romeo and Juliet" using otter. There will be no racy scenes but some holding. Otters will play Romeo, Juliet, and the others. We will bring the otters out at the intermission to pet. These otters are something to see. They have performed this play many times with only one biting incident.'

More Letters From A Nut

With an introduction by Jerry Seinfeld

Chas Griffin

In 1982 the Griffins left the security of suburbia to grow garlic in West Wales. From the struggle with rurality that ensued grew (organically) the very amusing, and informative, warts-and-all account Scenes From a Smallholding . 
 
Now in this sometimes touching, but always funny sequel, Chas reveals what happened four years after their arrival - when the dream had been well and truly dreamt and they were experiencing some rather rude awakenings. Did they ever achieve the blissful good life? Are they surrounded by organic veg? How have the family coped with their new rural life? 
 
Written with Chas Griffin's trademark charm and humour, enjoy another compelling romp through the countryside.

More Scenes From a Smallholding

In 1982 the Griffins left the security of suburbia to grow garlic in West Wales. This is a funny and sometimes touching, warts-and-all account of their first three years: of how they learned lambing and marketing and ploughing and hay-making: and of the dung-sodden joys of milking and the surreal terrors of bee-keeping. Be amused. Be very amused. 
 
Scenes from a Smallholding is by turns challenging, touching, and informative; but above all, it is very funny.

Scenes From A Smallholding

Michael Simkins

As a boy, Michael Simkins always wanted to be someone. While his friends were out getting laid and stoned, he was tucked up at home dreaming of his name in lights, of holding an audience rapt, of perhaps becoming a TV heart-throb, or having someone, anyone, ask for his autograph in the supermarket. This is the true story of an obsessive pursuit of acting fame. It is a life marked by occasional hard-fought successes and routine helpings of ritual humiliation: scout hut Gilbert and Sullivan, dodgy rock operas, sewage farm theatre workshop, Christmas panto hell, straight-to-video film flops, leading roles in Crimewatch reconstructions and dressing up as a chicken to advertise TV dinners. It is a hilarious tale of turgid theatre, tights, trusses and tonsil tennis with Timothy Spall.

What's My Motivation?

Ronnie Barker

With a foreword by Ronnie Corbett. 
 
Loved by millions and collected here for the first time is the very best of Ronnie Barker’s classic sketches, monologues, songs and, of course, the brilliant two-handers that he wrote for The Two Ronnies. Celebrating his genius for comic wordplay, this wonderful collection includes ‘Pismonouncers Unanimous’, ‘An Appeal for Women’ ‘Swedish for Beginners’ and the nation’s favourite sketch, ‘Fork Handles’. 
 
As talented a writer as he was performer, Ronnie Barker was behind the best known Two Ronnies’ material. His comedy writing was so prolific that he began using the pseudonym Gerald Wiley while working on Frost on Sunday, which he continued when making The Two Ronnies, so eager was he to ensure that his writing was judged on its merit alone. 
 
Showcasing the work of a true comic icon, and one of the best writers and comedians of the twentieth century, Fork Handles is every bit as warm and funny as Ronnie Barker himself.

Fork Handles

The Bery Vest of Ronnie Barker

Richard Herring

Comedian Richard Herring has a major problem. He's about to turn 40 and hasn't seen it coming. He's not married, doesn't have a proper job or 2.4 children. But now, finally, it looks as if the world expects him to be a grown up - and he's completely unprepared for it. 
 
As the momentous and terrifying event approaches (his birthday), Richard notices a steep decline in his own behaviour. Inexplicably he begins to behave more childishly - hanging out with 22-year-olds, developing an unhealthy addiction to Flumps and even getting into a ludicrous fight. 
 
How Not to Grow Up is the funny story of how a self-confessed perpetual Big Kid deals with his greatest fear - getting older - and is the perfect book for everyone who, deep down, still thinks that they're 18.

How Not to Grow Up

A Coming of Age Memoir. Sort of.

Rosemarie Jarski

The bestselling, blockbusting, bumper book of humorous quotations rides back into town with 6,000 more hilariously funny quotes. From times past to the modern day, classic funnies to contemporary wit, The Funniest Thing You Never Said 2 delivers an unbeatable selection of fantastic and hilarious quotes on every subject under the sun. Featuring topics as diverse as celebrity to religion, and including a cast of quotees ranging from Oscar Wilde to Homer Simpson, there's something here for everyone with a sense of humour. 
 
'I am willing to love all mankind, except an American.' - Samuel Johnson 
 
'Glastonbury was very wet and muddy. There was trench foot, dysentery, peaches ... all the Geldof daughters.' - Sean Lock 
 
'Politics would be a helluva good business if it weren't for the goddamned people.' - Richard Nixon 
 
'I've had more women than most people have noses.' - Steve Martin 
 
'I have the simplest tastes. I'm always satisfied with the best.' - Oscar Wilde 
 
'Well, it's 1am. Better go home and spend some quality time with the kids.' - Homer Simpson 
 
'All I know is I'm not a Marxist.' - Karl Marx 
 
'I'm the pink sheep of the family.' - Alexander McQueen

Funniest Thing You Never Said 2

Kyle MacDonald

Kyle MacDonald wanted his own house. The problem was he didn't have a job and he didn't have any money. Thinking back to his childhood he remembered the game he loved to play - Bigger and Better. It was a way of trading your old stuff to get bigger and better new stuff. Legend had it, some people managed to trade an old biro for a brand new car! This got Kyle thinking. If that kind of entrepreneurial spirit could turn tiny objects into big ones, then why not try trading up to a house? 
And then he saw it. One red paperclip, sitting on his desk, holding the pages of his CV together, ready to go out into the world and help him find the job that would eventually get him a house. 
But that didn't sound nearly as much fun as trading. So he wrote an internet advert hoping to trade one red paperclip and suddenly his inbox filled with responses: the trading had begun. 
Did he get the house? Well, you're about to find out! One thing's for sure, he did a lot of trades and met a lot of very interesting people. One small paperclip was the beginning of a great big adventure.

One Red Paperclip

The story of how one man changed his life one swap at a time

Stephanie Klein

When Stephanie Klein hit her twenty-fourth birthday she thought she had everything she could possibly have wanted from life: a good job, a successful husband, a Manhattan apartment and a baby on the way. 
 
By the time she hit thirty it was all gone; her husband and her baby lost. She was left to start again with a whole new life and an entirely depleted cast of characters. Her only company was her 'Furkid' (the small brown dog she now shared a bed with). Her friend told her to get out dating again and to employ the sandwich principle - keep one man on either side, and enjoy the interesting one in-between. So she set off, with much trepidation and wardrobe anxiety, to discover single sex all over again... 
 
The weblog she kept of her new found freedom and sexual adventures became a sensation in the States. Her brilliantly funny, acerbic descriptions of love, life and dating bought her press and acclaim. Straight up and Dirty is Stephanie's funnier than comedy, truer than romance, sexier than fiction account of her journey.

Straight Up and Dirty

Danny Wallace

In the brilliant AWKWARD SITUATIONS FOR MEN, Danny Wallace entertained us with wonderfully funny true stories from his often embarrassing and bewildering everyday life as a man. 
 
Well, Danny is back - and he's even more confused than ever! 
 
A lot has happened to Danny Wallace in the past year. He has had a baby and has been hobnobbing with the powers that be in Hollywood. But that hasn't made him any less awkward. 
 
Being more of a grown up brings its own baffling etiquette and expected social graces, and no-one has told Danny. 
 
Join Danny once again on his very funny stumble through more Awkward Situations. It's not easy being a man!

More Awkward Situations for Men

Lucien Young

Leavis Carroll

Lying on a riverbank on a lazy summer’s afternoon – 23rd June 2016, to be precise – Alice spots a flustered-looking white rabbit called Dave calling for a referendum. Following him down a rabbit-hole, she emerges into a strange new land, where up is down, black is white, experts are fools and fools are experts... 
 
She meets such characters as the Corbynpillar, who sits on a toadstool smoking his hookah and being no help to anyone; Humpty Trumpty, perched on a wall he wants the Mexicans to pay for; the Cheshire Twat, who likes to disappear leaving only his grin, a pint, and the smell of scotch eggs remaining; and the terrifying Queen of Heartlessness, who’ll take off your head if you dare question her plan for Brexit. Will Alice ever be able to find anyone who speaks sense?

Alice in Brexitland

Tony Hawks

'I hereby bet Tony Hawks the sum of One Hundred Pounds that he cannot hitchhike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, within one calendar month' 
 
A foolhardy attempt to win a drunken bet led to Tony Hawks having one of the most unforgettable experiences of his life. Joined by his trusty travelling-companion-cum-domestic-appliance, he found himself in the midst of a remarkable, inspirational and, at times, downright silly adventure. 
 
In their month of madness, Tony and his fridge surfed together; entered a batchelor festival; and one of them had sex without the other knowing. The fridge got christened, and they even met the poorest king on Earth. 
 
An absurd story of an extraordinary adventure, Round Ireland with a Fridge follows the fearless pair as they battle towards Dublin and a breathtaking finale that is moving, uplifting, and a fitting conclusion to the whole ridiculous affair.

Round Ireland With A Fridge

Woody Allen

'I am greatly relieved that the universe is finally explainable. I was beginning to think it was me.' Thus begins 'Strung Out', Woody Allen's hilarious application of the laws of the universe to daily life. Mere Anarchy, Woody Allen's first collection in over 25 years, features eighteen witty, wild and intelligent comic pieces - eight of which have never been in print before. 
 
Surreal, absurd, rich in verbal play, bitingly satirical and just plain daft in the mode we have grown to love from his finest films, this flight-of-fancy collection includes tales of a body double who, mistaken for the film's star, is kidnapped by outlaws; a pretentious novelist forced to work on the novelisation of a Three Stooges film; a nanny secretly writing an expose of her Manhattan employers; crooks selling bespoke prayers on eBay; and how to react when you're asked to finance a Broadway play about the invention and manufacture of the adjustable showerhead.

Mere Anarchy

Pope Lonergan

Nominated for the Chortle Comedy Book Award 2023 
 
'Blisteringly well written, deeply humane and very funny' Daily Telegraph 
'Enough to make you die laughing' Daily Mail 
'Funny and moving' Daily Express 
 
Whether he's initiating a coup d'état against new regulations with the residents, or forging a bond with the 98-year old who once called him a fat slut, Pope Lonergan's work is infinitely varied. This no-holds-barred account shows what life inside a care home is really like, for both residents and carers. Featuring night-time drama, incontinence pads and the uniquely dark humour of one double-amputee Alzheimer's patient, here you can learn everything you ever wanted to know (and a few things you probably really didn't) about Britain's care system. 
 
This important memoir challenges us all to think differently about the value of our elderly, and also the carers who look after them.

I'll Die After Bingo

My unlikely life as a care home assistant

Danny Wallace is about to turn thirty and his life has become a cliché. Recently married and living in a smart new area of town, he's swapped pints down the pub for lattes and brunch. For the first time in his life, he's feeling, well ... grown-up. 
 
But something's not right. Something's missing. Until he finds an old address book containing just twelve names. His best mates as a kid. Where are they now? Who are they now? And how are they coping with being grown-up too? 
 
And so begins a journey from A-Z, tracking down and meeting his old gang. He travels from Berlin to Tokyo, from Sydney to LA. He even goes to Loughborough. He meets Fijian chiefs. German rappers. Some ninjas. And a carvery manager who's managed to solve time travel. But how will they respond to a man they haven't seen in twenty years, turning up and asking if they're coming out to play? 
 
Part-comedy, part-travelogue, part-memoir, Friends Like These is the story of what can happen when you track down your past, and of where the friendships you thought you'd outgrown can take you today...

Friends Like These

Dave Gorman

If someone called you a 'googlewhack' what would you do? Would you end up playing table tennis with a nine year-old boy in Boston? Would you find yourself in Los Angeles wrangling snakes, or would you go to China to be licked by a performance artist? 
 
If your name is Dave Gorman, then all of these things could be true. 
 
Fuelled by a lust for life and a desperate desire to do anything except what he's supposed to be doing (writing that novel and growing up), Dave falls under the spell of an obscure internet word game - Googlewhacking. Addicted to the game, and gripped by obsession, Dave travels three times round the world, visiting four continents and the unlikeliest cast of real life eccentrics you'll ever meet in what becomes an epic challenge, a life-changing, globe-trotting Googlewhack adventure.

Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure

Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas has been touring the country for months, getting audiences to come up with policies aimed at sorting out the country's political chaos and taking back the power for the people. Sick to death of bailing out bankers and subsidising MPs homes, the audience vote on the best policy of the night to be included in the brand new People's Manifesto. 
 
From the inspiring to the downright hilarious, you'll wonder why these fantastic ideas aren't part of the constitution already. For example: 
 
- All politicians will be forced to wear the names and logos of the companies sponsor that them or with whom they have financial links. 
- Anyone who supports ID cards is banned from having curtains. 
- All models have to be picked at random from the electoral register. 
- Anyone found guilty of homophobic hate crime has to serve their sentence in drag. 
- CEOs convicted of fraud will be made to dress as pirates in whatever job they get in the future. 
 
The People's Manifesto will outline 50 policies of the manifesto shouted out in bold type on a page to themselves with Mark's commentary opposite. Mark has even 'road tested' some of them - like hosting a party in an MP's second home (which clearly belongs to the taxpayer) and getting university boffins to work out a way of SAT testing MPs to rank them by value. And Mark's guerrilla antics won't end there... 
 
Power to the people is really happening.

Mark Thomas Presents the People's Manifesto

Ronnie Corbett

A true great of British comedy, Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Corbett, is hailed as one of the finest comedians of his generation. 
 
Son of an Edinburgh baker, Ronnie rose to fame as one half of the infamous Two Ronnies alongside Ronnie Barker. Known for his versatility, quick-wit, family-friendly dialogue, and meandering monologues, Corbett was a staple of British television for more than 50 years. In his autobiography, he tells the complete story, from his school technique of estimating the height of a girl before daring to ask her to dance, to his days as a night club barman in London, and finally, to his decades long career as a stand-up and sitcom star. Including tales of how he first met David Frost, John Cleese and Michael Palin, this book is written with all of Ronnie’s trademark warmth and wit. 
 
Celebrating his life and career, this is Ronnie’s own honest and definitive account of his truly dramatic journey.

High Hopes

Rohan Candappa

An adorable paperback edition of a popular hardback by bestselling humorist Rohan Candappa. 
 
It's an extraordinary world out there and The One Year Old is here to share his revelatory journey through babyhood. From full and frank explanations as to why he sometime blows snot bubbles through his nose (because he can) to the mystery of the stalker (if someone had just explained to him about mirrors). From the frustrating stupidity of his parents (Hairy and Smooth) to delights of running around naked on the kitchen table, it's a truly enlightening and delightfully funny read. To every parent who's ever wearily wiped food from the floor and said 'Is this your idea of a game?' - beware. The One Year Old is about to reveal just how much he's been playing with you.

Autobiography Of A One Year Old

Phil Ball

When Phil Ball left university with a workmanlike English degree to his name and no discernible ambitions, he wasn't entirely sure what to do next. So like many before him he thought he'd giving teaching a go. Why not? 
 
This is the comic story of one man's painfully slow metamorphosis into a teacher at an everyday comprehensive and his encounters with other remarkable teachers and pupils along the way. The good, the bad, the violent, the victimised and the clinically insane: from his first teaching practice nemesis, Alan Plant, who knows his dark secret, to the pupil who believes he is a reincarnation of the poet Andrew Marvell. It is a tale of the highs and lows of attempting to teach: from the joy of really making a difference to young minds to being physically set upon by a teenage horde. 
 
And that's just what happens in the classroom. Beyond it is the real world of teachers behind staff-room doors: desperate lives, unseemly professional competition, a diet of cigarettes, alcohol and cold coffee, casual sex and general social dysfunction. Not a great example, but the truth...

The Hapless Teacher's Handbook

Mo Gilligan

Come on my journey. Look at where man's come from. I was working in retail in 2017. 
 
You might know Mo as the critically acclaimed stand-up comedian, BAFTA-winning presenter, Masked Singer judge and social media mega star. But do you know the moments that really made him? Opening up on the turning points, the good times, the challenges and the lessons learned, this is Mo as you've never seen him before. 
 
Journeying through childhood memories in South London, Mo reminisces about school days and old-school raving, and takes us behind the scenes of his first comedy gigs, the creation of the original Geezer, selling out national tours and becoming one of TV's most in-demand stars. Share the moment that Mo decided he wanted to be a comedian, the moment he went viral, the moment he realised he was famous (and how to deal with it), the moment his Netflix special dropped, the moment he won his BAFTA and the moments he still has to come. 
 
In among the laugh-out-loud observations, life lessons and candid storytelling, there lies the bigger influences in Mo's life - the unsung heroes of the Black British comedy scene, the power of community and the feel-good legacy he wants to create. 
 
'The Funniest Man in Britain' The Times

That Moment When

Life Stories from Way Back Then

Do you think the world's going to hell in a handcart? Do you reckon the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train? 
 
If the answer is a heartfelt yes, you'll feel right at home amongst the malcontents and misanthropes here. Woody Allen, W.C. Fields, Dorothy Parker, Joan Rivers, Jo Brand, Mark Lamarr and Victor Meldrew are just some of the world-class curmudgeons to sound-off hilariously about all the things that make you seethe: traffic wardens, cold callers, caravans, James Blunt, estate agents, other drivers, being put on hold, men in flip-flops and modern art. With over 4,000 entries, this is the most comprehensive collection of grumpiness there has ever been. 
 
As for you Pollyannas who persist in looking for silver linings despite dire weather warnings, isn't it about time you woke up and smelt the rancid coffee? Cast off those rose-tinted spectacles, climb on board the handcart and fasten your seatbelts: it's going to be one hell of a grumpy ride.

Grumpy Old Wit

The greatest collection of grumpy wit ever assembled from Socrates to Meldrew

Rory McGrath

'I remember thinking when I was about 14, "I hope God doesn't find out I'm an atheist".' 
 
This is Rory's story of being brought up a Catholic, going to Catholic school, being an altar boy; of the parents, priests, the nuns who taught him, the life and characters at his local Church. Until, that is, as a teenager in crisis, he abandons his faith and enters the god-forsaken world and the glamour of its evil ways with a spring in his step. 
 
But almost immediately he realises he has in the process also freed himself from certainty, comfort and hope. So his apostasy is a long and winding road which includes the coincidence of marrying a (lapsed) Catholic and getting married in a Catholic church so his children could attend the best school in the area. Its about how being raised a Catholic always colours your view of life and death and how it fuels the guilt you feel in every nook and cranny of that life, and how it provoked for him an [unsuccessful] search for God in other things; sex, drugs, drink, love, family, football and the Periodic Table. 
 
May contain traces of jokes.

The Father, the Son and the Ghostly Hole

Confessions from a guilt-edged life

'Why is my hair starting to go as grey as Blake Carrington's? What is our local pub called? Are bootcut jeans still fashionable? These are just some of the questions I'll never answer now I've had my first baby.' 
 
With her TV career hitting the skids and her daughter's nappy doing the same every two hours, her husband suddenly unemployed and the bank writing to her only in red, Mel needs to come up with a scheme, and fast: Move to a house they can't afford, of course! Welcome to an endless cabaret of sleeplessness, removal men, sinister toddler groups, husband-stealing lodgers and competitive mums.

Going Ga Ga

Caitlin Moran

Listen to the brand new dramatisation of How To Be a Woman, narrated by Caitlin herself, as part of BBC Radio 4's Riot Girls season 
 
Selected by Emma Watson for her feminist book club ‘Our Shared Shelf’ 
 
 
It's a good time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven't been burnt as witches since 1727. However, a few nagging questions do remain... 
 
Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should we use Botox? Do men secretly hate us? And why does everyone ask you when you're going to have a baby? 
 
Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin answers the questions that every modern woman is asking.

How To Be a Woman

Jeremy Hardy

When Jeremy Hardy decided to explore his ancestry it was, in part, to get to the bottom of his grandmother Rebecca's dubious claims that the family descended from a certain 17th-century architect and that, more recently, Jeremy's great-grandfather was a Royal bodyguard. Other legends ranged from the great aunt who ran illegal hooch during Prohibition to the wronged Victorian servant girl who bore an illegitimate Hardy, not forgetting the family's rightful claim to a large country estate. 
 
Wild stories aside, Jeremy sets out to such diverse locations as the Croydon one-way system and the hostile waters around Malta in order to find traces of recognisable family traits and a sense of how he came to be. With wry humour and a keen eye for the absurd and the frustrating, Jeremy takes us on a by turns funny and moving journey into the world of family ancestry. 
 
My Family and Other Strangers will be enjoyed by anyone who has tried to decipher the 1901 census records, or simply wishes they too had asked their grandparents more about their lives.

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