Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingauthor="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> <!-- Curran -->Dean Koontz|-| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|The Bad Weather Friend[[image:1683690133.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690133/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris]]===Paranormal[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] You are a lass of twenty eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency era London the race Benny is on to find having a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey you'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes to suitors though, you'll have to make the ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, terrifically bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Cravenday. With orphans He loses his job, werewolveshe loses his fiancee, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, it's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision... [[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris|Full Review]] <!-- Jester -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jester_Forever.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1510704361?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1510704361]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fasntasy]] Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and his house gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortalitytrashed. We follow Michael Oh, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (someone has delivered a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat. [[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester|Full Review]] <!-- Stibbe -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Stibbe_Xmas.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241309824?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbagreally weird, disturbing coffin-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0241309824]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have sized object to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnighthis home, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic possible that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, whoever or whatever was inside is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade thing that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe|Full Review]] <has trashed his house!-- Doescher -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Doescher_Will.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/159474985X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=159474985X]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken''thing is, but here at Benny is the very last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-person to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurtsdeserve all this bad luck. And if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series He is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good… [[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]] <!-- Goss -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Goss_600a nice person.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785942719?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785942719]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies]]=== [[image:4really nice person.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse|Children's Rhymes and Verse]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand So fortunately for Benny it turns out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemies. As luck would have it, he has the space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along delivery to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on house is a shorter timescalenew friend, with a shorter lifespanbad weather friend called Spike, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same. [[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies|Full Review]] <!-- Ingram -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Ingram_Kammie.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785451995?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785451995]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Pets|Pets]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] It was something of a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and her cocker spaniel Kammie. You see, Annie knows something which who has been self-evident sent to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans and not just on a level of food!, walk! or play!. You do require extensive training to become fluent, but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to teach you and all you have to do help him since Benny is listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the pair have allowed us to share some of their conversations. [[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram|Full Review]] <!-- Harris -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Harris_Glass.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908943823/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Teenager Liam Glass is mugged and stabbed yards clearly under attack from his Camden flat. As the boy lies comatose, desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles for the inside scoop, tired police officer Andy Rockham searches nefarious forces for being a missing tape, harried politician Jamila Hasan fights for re-election, distraught mother Katrina Glass waits by her son, and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong timegood person. We follow this host of ensemble characters in a bleak, kaleidoscopic satire of modern media. [[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris|Full Review]] <!-- LENTE -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Lente_10.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690222/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Nine comedians are invited to a remote Caribbean island under the guise of working with Dustin Walker, a comedic legend. Each fits neatly into one of the archetypal comic stereotypes: Steve, the washed-up has-been who has fallen far from his early days; Zoe, the rising female star with a new stand-up special coming soon; Dante, who went from being a kid on the streets to the hardest working road comic in the business; Oliver, the child-like prop comic who can't get any respect from his peers; Janet, the insult comic who is past her prime; TJ, the nightly variety show host with a reputation for harassing his female colleagues and guest acts; Ruby, the ultra-feminist YouTuber and Blogger with a chip on her shoulder; and William, whose redneck character ''Billy the Contractor'' Spike is a far cry from his real personality as a posh millionaire. Of course, all nine agree because ''when God almighty walks down on a beam of light and asks for your help, what the hell else are you going to say?'' [[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]] <!-- Scott -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Scott_Eliz.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788037006/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Elizabethtake care of Benny, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Ally is an ordinary woman with teenage children, a husband and a job. Then comes the day when ordinariness flies out will certainly take care of the window. ItBenny's not a coincidence that it's the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth I in the pantry and the Bard of Avon in her bath. What's she going to do? Wellenemies, if he, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about that! [[ElizabethBenny, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott|Full Review]] <!-- Rodford -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Rodford_Surgeon.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178565005X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] In the second instalment of this series, Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator George Kocharyan has been hired by a well-known local man to track down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraith, a world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, has had his briefcase stolen by his live-in domestic servant, Aurora. According to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the hospital. George agrees to look finds herself roped into the theft, assuming it will be a relatively easy and straightforward case – little does he know, heBenny's about to enter a world of deceit and dysfunctionwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. [[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford|Full Review]] <!-- Jordan -->|-| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|1662500491[[image:Jordan_Tiny.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1760293814/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|}}===[[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] As predicted by Caroline and Janice's mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding day, their marriage is over, albeit 15 years and two daughters further along than predicted. Indeed, this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice to be babysitting at Caroline's house. There's the split and the awkwardness of the girls' schoolteacher being the other woman for a start. Then there's that mistaken identity moment involving the neighbours. At least Janice is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec. She still dreams of him, yes, but it's so over! Just as well really… guess who's at the door? [[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan|Full Review]] <!-- Taylor -->Frontpage|-| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|1529153050[[image:Taylor_Scilly.jpg|linktitle=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475515X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – the author provides a handy guide to the etiquette of their name, their nature and location, etc.) For our more distant readers, theyBritain're several chunks of granite rock out in the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residents. They're big on tourism, and big on growing flowers in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. They're so wee, and so idyllic-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a police presence. But there is – at least two working at any one time. And one of them in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought to life all the whimsical comedy of his work. [[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|} {{newreviews Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees|title='Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A ParodyTim Benson|rating=3.54

|summary=ItSeeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''Britain's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged everythingBest Political Cartoons of 2022''. All she now has to do is await Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the arrival of year: the relatives and the food shopping deliverycartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have Who can imagine what there will be to come in the potential to ruin everything.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472125118</amazonuk>2023 edition?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryan North1785633074|title=Romeo and/or JulietStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating=34.5

|summary=For all Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those of you who think tragedy plots are too restricted Eton and prescribedOxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. We are in the privileged position of having access to the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, read onthe man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. In these pages you too You might not know the name now but he will see certainly be the man to watch.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571365884|title=My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far between. On a visit to a therapist, as an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that Romeo had lots she should write it down and ''My Mess is a Bit of options en route a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the result - or so we are given to hitting believe.}}{{Frontpage|author=John Boyne|title=The Echo Chamber|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as "one of the bottlefew television personalities over the age of fifty without a criminal record". LikewiseHe starts this book a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's carrying his child, she could but then his author wife is getting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. They have turned away from her predestined path at three children, who are a sad-sack with absolutely no end social skills whatsoever, a girl who hangs around with a virtue-signalling, keyboard warrior "wokester" who wants to save the world's homeless with out-of junctures-date food, and a fit young lad doing the gay hustle thing. Add in a few other characters – therapists, lawyers, random transgender types – that all have two very different connections to his life, and you have something that suggests an almost farcical approach to the modern world. What suggests the farcical approach even more, however, is the fact this is bloody funny.|isbn=0857526219}}{{Frontpage|author=Stephen Clarke|title=The Spy Who Inspired Me|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=This is a spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. And to what result? Or Ian Fleming. WellBut it features a man called Ian Lemming, happy marriage who dresses well and 'likes the ladies' and who works for the secret service, but in the planning side of things more than the active service. Lemming finds himself put on a kid mission with a female spy called BenMargaux, because and the leads have just banged peoplepair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her!|isbn=2952163855}}{{Frontpage|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Kokoschka's heads together Doll|rating=2.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and stopped flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the quarrellingmiddle on darker stock paper, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous womenchapter whose number was in the 20,000s, such letters used as narrative form, and so on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a Lady M (her)man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too. But you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356508536</amazonuk>1529402697

<!-- Phinn -->*You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[imageSorting the Priorities:Phinn_VirginAmbassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador.jpg|.. They have left|link=http://wwwThe Career and settled in Rome.amazon Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.co.uk/dp/1444779400/ref}}{{Frontpage|isbn=nosim?tagB08GFSK2WZ|title=thebookbag-21]]The Karma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=[[The Virgin MaryGeorge Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and single. She's not had sex for eight months and she's stuck in the karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is being visited on her and she has a real talent for attracting drama. Her life's chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the shower by putting something down at the bottom of the stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her, stark naked, staring at the pervy postman. She only has to take her mother's Got Nits dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a photo being taken by Gervase Phinn]]someone who shares it around the office.}} {{Frontpage|author=David C Mason|title=Pandora's Gardener|rating=3|genre=Crime[[image:4|summary= John Cranston is a gardener, although what he did before he became a gardener, he claims, is classified.5star That is just as well because he is about to be caught up in a criminal / spy / terrorist plot, where only he can save the day.jpg|linkisbn=Category:0956180523}}{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Frontpage|isbn=Jester_Forever|title=Forever After:Category:Humoura dark comedy|Humour]], [[:Category:Anthologiesauthor=David Jester|Anthologies]]rating=4|genre=HorrorChristmas in our house |summary=Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the time we tend to get on offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends, Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a plane stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and head finding a clean surface to either sun or snowsit on in their flat.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1683691172|title=William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Ian Doescher|rating=2.5|genre=Humour|summary=A long time ago, anywhere that is in a galaxy faraway, far away from all the madness at homeStar Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, last minute dashes to and the marriage seemed a perfectly suitable one. So much so – so easily did the shops on Christmas Eveplots and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, and food cupboard stockpiles behave with Shakespearean stage directions – that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a monththe producers tried again, nor with [[William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to the Future]] no less. And that worked. But simultaneously they put a mere 36 hoursreal test out. But A film I do can't even really remember seeing was transcribed into the feeling of Christmas when original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was youngergiven the brand new, back when it yet oh so ancient, dressing. Here was magical, and back when you knew exactly what the season true challenge – would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of I manage to enjoy this, based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those moments, and it took me right back to shiny gold stars for letting the wonder of Christmas as a child. [[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn|Full Review]]<br>game away…}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Kieran Crowley168369094X|title= ShootWilliam Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future!|author=Ian Doescher|rating= 4.5|genre= CrimeHumour|summary= I make something of A long time ago, in a habit publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the story of being late to discover good writersStar Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and styles in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with ussuch a clever way they seemed perfectly suited. The result is that what is billed as ''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' with It was then duly repeated for all the optimism of there being more to come has other films in the poignancy of beingmain Star Wars cycle, and clearly someone's buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, if not the last title of a short line, certainly one of a fewwhich became public knowledge the day before I write. F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" isIn the hiatus, technicallyhowever, a columnist. He's the effort has been sacked by one New York newspaper made to see if the same shtick works with other texts, and is writing a weekly column for anotherto riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. I don't know much about journalism, but I'm guessing one column a week doesn't pay much as a rule…which explains why Shepherd's soapAnd could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read seeming than Back to the bookFuture, with its tales of time travel, you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in some genuine journalism as well: front pagebullying, seat of your pants stuff. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783296518<and parent/amazonuk>child strife like no other?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gray Jolliffe1473669065|title=The First Ever Christmas: And Who to BlameQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel|author=Ruth Hogan

|summary=If I tell you a secretTilda returns to Brighton, will you promise not to tell anyone? Well, I really don't like Christmas: ittidy away the remains of her mother's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the day itselfParadise hotel, I look forward to that point when I a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can say be themselves, and let go of thoughts that it's all over for another yeartorment them elsewhere. It's all too commercialised Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for mebanishing her as a child, with a coating from this place of faux religionwonder. I've never found it in With the least funny - that ishelp of Queenie Malone, until I found Gray Jolliffe's ''The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to Blame''. Amazinglycaring, I'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe eitherand gregarious, but I'm a convert to his skills as a cartoonist (if not Tilda begins to pick apart the idea of Christmas) after reading this collection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archivetricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445663503</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Pugh1683690346|title=Pugh's New Year's ResolutionsThe Con Artist|author=Fred Van Lente|rating=4.5

|summary=If there's one thing that's Comic-Cons are a place of wonder and sanctuary for certainmany people, and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, ithe's looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, plus the world is changingchance of maybe, just maybe reuniting with his ex. We're dating online, we're communicating in ways that make email seem redundantHowever, and when we're shopping we just tell a website where and when it can be deliveredhis rival is found dead, and how much leeway they have Mike is forced to swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring us. But those changes are also supposed navigate every dark corner of the con in order to be affecting us clear his name – we're supposed from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to use a smart watch to tell us if we're moving or notzombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, we have to keep up with the latest fadsin doing so, and we're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eatmay just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Luke Rhinehart1473669588|title= InvasionFalling Short|author=Lex Coulton|rating= 4.5|genre= Humour |summary=Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And theyLex Coulton've come to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one days debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and he and his family quickly come to love the playful alienrelationships. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networksThe main protagonist, stealing millions from banks to give to othersFrances Pilgrim, they realise that Louie and his friends mean trouble. As Billy and his family begin is a roller coaster ride of fame and fortunesixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, as well as a ranking high on the FBI's most wanted list, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, work colleague and must be eliminated. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see is grappling with the insanity increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. This relationship is complicated by the American political, economic and military systems, they soon come to realise that the Powers fact that Be donFrances't play games: they make wars father disappeared at sea when she was five years old. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rod Green1683690133|title=Only Fools My Lady's Choosing|author=Kitty Curran and Horses: The Peckham ArchivesLarissa Zageris

|genre=Entertainment Humour|summary=We You are a lass of twenty-eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency-era London the world of one of the countryrace is on to find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey, you's most famous ll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, and well-loved sitcoms – even if it was sort-of killed off fired by a rogueish sense for Christmas 2003adventure. YesWhen it comes to suitors though, there you'll have been specials sinceto make the ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and more repeats ancient Egyptian artefacts along the way, it's clear this isn't going to clog up be an easy decision...}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=An Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the BBC schedules than is really pukkaturkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but very few people failed not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to succumb want to its charms at one eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time or anotherof great boons. IIt'm sure there have been books before now celebrating s cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the stonythank-faced reception you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Doescher_Will|title=William Shakespeare''that'' drop through s the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the open bar hatchSeventh|author=Ian Doescher|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for ''thatThe Force Doth Awaken'' chandelier scene, but this is much more meaty. Purporting to be here at last we get the family archivesactual script, found dumped complete with annoying-in Nelson Mandela House, the documents here were passed from pillar -different-ways-to post-before droids anew, returning heroes from one council worker elsewhere in a department with a clumsy acronym to anotherhis oeuvre, from them to and people keeping it in the police – and now here they are being published for their social history worthfamily til it hurts. Will enough readers find them And if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of worth, as Henry VI – here the series quietly celebrates its 35th birthday?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849909245</amazonuk>is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good…