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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]] __NOTOC__ <{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house!-- Remove --> The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fraser McAlpine1529153050|title=Stuff Brits LikeBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson

|summary= With over 100 chapters on different aspects of Britain Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and Britishnessmore like an adrenaline sport, this book is both fascinating and hilariousI was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of 2022''. Just looking at Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the list of subjects is enough to produce a sardonic twist of that stiff upper lipyear: the chapters cover topics that range cartoons run from offal 4 September 2021 to curry, from pedantry to banter, from conkers to rugby31 August 2022. There may Who can imagine what there will be many chapters but this is no academic tome - each chapter is just two to three pages long, each is written with endearing affection, each is easy and satisfying - and quirkily funny - to read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1857886348</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= John Samuel|title= What I Tell You come in the Dark|rating= 3.5|genre= Humour|summary=A man called Will is fighting fiercely against corruption – desperate to expose his company's dodgy dealings to the press. Overcome with doubt and fear, he goes to kill himself. But, at the exact moment he attaches his noose to the back of the door, he is saved. By a curious housemate or a concerned girlfriend2023 edition? No, by an Angel. Not the white-feathered guardian Angel you may expect, but one who wishes to help Will achieve his ends, and so possess the body of the hapless Will in order to finish what he started. It goes without saying that the Angel is hoping things go better than they did with the last guy he possessed – a hapless young man from Galilee called Jesus…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715650505</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Niven1785633074|title= The Sunshine Cruise Company|rating= 4.5|genre= Humour|summary= Susan Frobisher and Julie Wickham live in a small Dorset town. Friends since school, they live fairly uneventful lives – Susan has a lovely house and a lengthy marriage to accountant Barry, whereas Julie is doing slightly less well – living in a council flat and working in an old people's home. When Barry is found dead trussed up in a sex dungeon, it transpires that he has been leading a hidden life for years, and his expensive fetishes lead to the bank moving to take Susan's home. Struck by both desperation and a sense of injustice, Sue and Julie conspire to rob a bank, taking along their friend Jill – a devout Christian conflicted due to lack of money and a terminally ill grandson, and Ethel – a foul mouthed resident of the nursing home longing for adventure.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434023183</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewStaggering Hubris|author=Marie Phillips|title=The Table Of Less Valued KnightsJosh Berry

|genre=FantasyHumour|summary=Sir Humphrey has been demoted from King Arthur's Round Table Members of Parliament like us to believe that the Table of Lesser Valued Knights. The only way to get his comfier seat back country is to redeem himself via a quest. Therefore when damsel Elaine seeks help to find her kidnapped fiancérun by politicians, Humphrey headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those of you who are Eton and his ward, Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the teenage giant Conrad, eagerly set forthgovernment. Meanwhile We are in the kingdom privileged position of having access to the memoirs of TuftRafe Hubris, new Queen Martha has run away after a disastrous wedding to… a… well… disastrous Prince Edwinthe man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. She may You might not realise it yet, know the name now but she too he will have a job for Humphrey!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555875</amazonuk>certainly be the man to watch.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tim Flannery0571365884|title=The Mystery My Mess is a Bit of the Venus Island FetishLife: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=34|genre=Historical FictionAutobiography|summary=Meet Archie MeekGeorgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. He's She would worry about to leave whether the Venus Islands, where he's lived for monsters under the last five years, and return to Sydney, where he'll take his office in the museum and fill bed were comfortable: it with all was the cultural artefacts he's found sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and wildlife he's plucked or pickledfar between. That's not On a visit to ignore the fact he'll count a therapist, as something quite alien himselfan adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with his filled-out frame, nearly all-over suntan her it was suggested that she should write it down and totemic tattoo, in amongst other changes to his body. But what's this? When he gets back, he finds one 'My Mess is a Bit of the main Venus Islands artefacts that caused him to go there a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the first place, a huge, macabre ceremonial fetish mask, purloined as corporate artwork. And some of the curators he wishes result - or so we are given to work alongside have vanishedbelieve. Is the weird society of the museum he's returning to, perchance, even weirder, stranger and more violent than the cannibalistic society he's waving farewell to?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922079308</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roman DirgeJohn Boyne|title=The Cat with a Really Big HeadEcho Chamber|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic NovelsGeneral Fiction|summary= How many picture books are there about cats? And how many do you know that you would really NOT prefer your children to see? If Meet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as "one of the answer to few television personalities over the second question is 'none – yet', scratch that last wordage of fifty without a criminal record". The title piece in He starts this collection is, by the authorbook a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's own admissioncarrying his child, but then his imagining of author wife is getting her kicks with the Joseph Merrick (the 'Elephant Man') of the feline world – Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. They have three children, who struggles to sneak up behind are a sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, a mouse when the shadow of his head is girl who hangs around with a total giveawayvirtue-signalling, and keyboard warrior "wokester" who can hardly even eat with dignity as bending down wants to his bowl would break his neck. If thatsave the world's too dark or oddball for youhomeless with out-of-date food, try and a fit young lad doing the second major piecegay hustle thing. Add in a few other characters – therapists, lawyers, which has a most revealing foreword random transgender types – ''Dedicated that all have two very different connections to a certain girl… I hope your his life is filled with wonderful accomplishments, love and all you have something that suggests an almost farcical approach to the modern world. What suggests the farcical approach even more, however, is the magic you desire… - But I hope your death fact this is slow and horriblebloody funny.''|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782762876</amazonuk>0857526219

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Val HennessyStephen Clarke|title=Not Far From DreamlandThe Spy Who Inspired Me|rating=4.5

|summary=Ronald Tonks has reached This is a spoof spy story, that stage in life which I call upper middle age: youisn've qualified for your pension but not yet got to the free television licence barriert about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. What Ronald ''has'' got is But it features a roof that leaks (there's good reason why his home is man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the shackladies')and who works for the secret service, a dog who is going bald (in patches) and money that's but in very short supply. On the plus planning side he has friends, mostly platonic and usually in much of things more than the same boat as Ronaldactive service. But are they downhearted? Well, they are occasionallyLemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, but mostly they're generously optimistic and out to make the most of what they've gotpair end up stranded in Normandy, usually bought from charity shops and jumble sales. ''Not Far From Dreamland'' is the story of with Margaux on a year (2012) desperate mission to unearth traitors in the life of Ronald Tonksresistance network, his friends and relatives.Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0704373874</amazonuk>2952163855

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Harry HarrisonAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Bill, the Galactic HeroKokoschka's Doll|rating=32.5|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary=Meet BillWell, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. He's a simple farmer I found things to potentially delight me each time – well, he ''is'' taking a correspondence course weird section in being the middle on darker stock paper, a Technical Fertiliser Operator – but fate has something else chapter whose number was in store. And so does the mechanised20, technological000s, industrial militaryletters used as narrative form, which needs several billion grunts to fight and so on. It intrigued with the Chingers, subterranean voice a man hears in mankind's first inter-galactic war. Stillwartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, at least he gets medals just for signing uptoo. After But you've seen the star rating that it's all downhillcomes with this review, and the likes of Petty Chief Officer Deathwish Drang can only make tell that a straight line downif love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. Really, So what hope is therehappened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147320531X</amazonuk>1529402697

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian DoescherB08KKQ85FN|title=William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary= Join us, good gentles, for a merry reimagining of `Star Wars Episode 1' as only Shakespeare could have written it. 'Tis a true Shakespearean drama, filled with sword fights, soliloquies and doomed romance…all in glorious iambic pentameter and coupled with gorgeous illustrations. Hold on to your midichlorians: The plays the thing, wherein you'll catch the rise of Anakin!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748063</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewBut Never For Lunch|author=Attaboy|title=The Book of HugsSandra Aragona

|genre=HumourShort Stories|summary=A hug's 'If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a hugRottweiler in lipstick, OK? an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.'' You either do, or you don't. get many better opening sentences than that, do you? Some people might We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be a little more enthusiastic about moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the process whilst others are more elegant time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the execution situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of the hugslowing down any time soon, but basically you just get on despite being sixteen and do it and then forget about it, right?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0867197978</amazonuk>deaf.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Christopher FowlerB08GFSK2WZ|title= Bryant and May – The Burning ManKarma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd

|summary= The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) has John Cranston is a new set of overlords. For reasons that were explored in the previous couple of outings they have been transferred to the City Of London Police. The Met are still the big players in the area. City of London Police only police the old citygardener, the square mile, the financial district in other wordsalthough what he did before he became a gardener, that has very little in the way of street crimehe claims, is classified. That is just as well because no-one lives there anymore and the people who work there are, by and large, either too rich he is about to need to stealbe caught up in a criminal / spy / terrorist plot, or too smart to have to do so on where only he can save the streetsday.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857522043</amazonuk>0956180523

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catharina Ingelman-SundbergJester_Forever|title=The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again! |rating=3.5|genre=Humour|summary=Following the success of ''The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules'', the League of Pensioners are back – and this time, they’re in Vegas! I haven’t read the first book but it was on my list when the opportunity arose to review this one. The idea of the League of Pensioners marching towards a fairer world through fun and frolics was hugely appealing to me and this is Forever After: a stand alone novel so I thought I would dive straight in with this one.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447274903</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewdark comedy|author=Winshluss|title=In God We TrustDavid Jester|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=To start with, a rhetorical test. How about God and Adam playing badminton day in and day out, until one gets bored and decides to create Eve? Or the defeater of Goliath and the saviour of the Israelites being one Conan the Barbarian? Or this as a test – Jesus Himself failing to have a successful session of tequila slammers with Gabriel due to the holes through His hands? I barely need mention that in these pages God does battle with Superman, for you to have answered the test and put yourself firmly in one of two camps for this book – one very much opposed to buying it, and one very much in favour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662350</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=David Walliams and Tony Ross|title=The Queen's Orang-Utan|rating=5|genre=For Sharing|summary=The Queen felt trapped in the palace with all those stuffed animals which she has been given on foreign tours. There are mountains of them and every night she would dream of escaping. When her birthday drew near the family dutifully asked her what she would like as a present. The Prince was thinking of a gold, diamond encrusted stairlift whilst the Duke was considering a great big bottle of brandy. The Royal Baby had some decorated thimbles in mind, but the Queen became just a little snappish as she explained that what she really wanted was 'One's own orang-utan'. And she didn't mean a stuffed one, either.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008135134</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jack Sheffield|title=Silent Night|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I read a couple of Jack Sheffield’s books about five years ago, and enjoyed them very much. They were written in a similar style to those popularised by, for instance, James Herriot or [[:Category:Gervase Phinn|Gervase Phinn]], told mostly in the first person, describing the author’s first couple of years as Headmaster at a small village primary school in Yorkshire. The village of Ragley is fictional, as are most of the characters, but the incidents and situations encountered are based on the author’s experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552167045</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=J Robert Lennon|title=See You In Paradise|rating=3|genre=Short Stories|summary=Lennon writes with a relaxed, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of life, without being in any way stereotypical. Many of the people in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed to root for (the only exception is the industrialist in the eponymous tale, who is an archetypal capitalist fat cat). There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head'', for example, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfair. For me, the most unsettling story is ''No Life'', because it portrays a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social power.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Lynne Truss|title=Cat out of Hell|rating=3

|summary=Meet Alec Charlesworth. He's retired Michael Holland is a cocky and decamped to an isolated coastal cottage with just his dog brash young man who dies and loving memories gets made the offer of his colleague wife, now that she has died before her timelifetime; immortality. But the fusty librarian cannot rest too long before engaging in exploring some unusual computer files that were pinged across by someone at the college he worked atWe follow Michael, just before he left. Bizarrely they show photographic a grim reaper and audio evidence of a talking cat called Rogerhis friends, replete with Vincent Price voice – although they are also damaged by being included alongside some bad screenplay attempts about said cat. Worryingly, we soon see what at the most only Chip (a few of the characters can, that this cat is being accompanied by unusual stoner tooth fairy) and unexpected death – much like Alec's wife. It's only when Roger testifies to having been pushed through Naff (a stoner in the ends of endurance records department) as they grapple with their long lives and out the other side that we begin finding a clean surface to doubt where the true evil sit on in this story lies…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099585340</amazonuk>their flat.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jimmy Hansen and Mychailo Kazybird1683691172|title=Wallace & Gromit : The Complete Newspaper Strips Collection Vol 2William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Ian Doescher|rating=42.5

|summary=For me there are two important areas of A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, all the Star Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, and the cover of this book where three letters are arranged in meaningful waysmarriage seemed a perfectly suitable one. The first is with So much so – so easily did the S-U-N plots and characters converse in their obligatory red Shakespearean dialogue, and white font. No minor paper could hold Wallace and Gromitbehave with Shakespearean stage directions – that the producers tried again, their adventures have with [[William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to be in what is (unfortunately) the most widely read tabloid in Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to the countryFuture]] no less. And elsewhere is C-B-E, suggesting that worked. But simultaneously they put a real test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was transcribed into the original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the storytellers at Aardman Animations who are not household names are feted and revered as artistic expertsbrand new, yet oh so ancient, raising many laughs and much money for dressing. Here was the country courtesy of their creative output. Together these short collections of letters show just how much WaG are major creationstrue challenge – would I manage to enjoy this, and if based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those shiny gold stars for letting the proof was needed this much longer collection of their daily comic strips provides it in spades.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782760822</amazonuk>game away…

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=168369094X|title=Dear Committee MembersWilliam Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future!|author=Julie SchumacherIan Doescher

|summary=Miss Elizabeth Mapp rules A long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the town story of Tilling - she is Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and styles in such a clever way they seemed perfectly suited. It was then duly repeated for all the centre of other films in the social lifemain Star Wars cycle, and spends her days enjoying bridgeclearly someone's buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, polite conversation and civilised paintingthe title of which became public knowledge the day before I write. When Mrs Emmeline Lucas arrives in town (known to all as Lucia) In the hiatus, Miss Mapp finds her life truly shaken uphowever, as the culturedeffort has been made to see if the same shtick works with other texts, fashionable and progressive Lucia makes her home to riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. And could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to the townFuture, with its tales of time travel, bullying, and swiftly rises to the top of the ranks amongst the social scene in Tilling.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849908478<parent/amazonuk>child strife like no other?

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Encyclopedia Paranoiaca1473669065|author=Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf|rating=4|genretitle=Popular Science|summary=WeQueenie Malone're screwed. Wherever we look, whatever we think of doing, there is a reason why we shouldn't be doing it, and people to back that reason up with scientific data. Take any aspect of your daily life – what you eat, how you work, how you rest even, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness or worse. And outside that daily sphere there are economic disasters, nuclear meltdowns, errant AI scientists and passing comets that could turn our world upside down at the blink of an eye. Perhaps then you better read this book first – for it may well turn out to be your last…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Diary of a Mad Divas Paradise Hotel|author=Joan RiversRuth Hogan|rating=3.5

|summary=The late Joan Rivers wasTilda returns to Brighton, without a doubt, a characterto tidy away the remains of her mother's life after her death. Actress, comedian, writer, director, presenterWhilst there, she was well known in returns to the USA and beyond Paradise hotel, a haven for her sharp tongue eccentrics and no holds barred personamisfits. This was the last A place where people can be themselves, and let go of the dozen books she published, thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her final title before mother for banishing her death in September 2014.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0425269027</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - The Nearly Definitive Edition|author=Douglas Adams|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=There are few series that have garnered such as a cult following as 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'child, from this place of wonder. Whether With the fans have come from the radio serieshelp of Queenie Malone, the (impossibly hard) computer gamecaring, or the (well intentioned but not particularly good) filmand gregarious, they are everywhere. Ask a room of people what Tilda begins to pick apart the meaning of life is, tricky and you can be pretty sure a good few will pipe up uncertain relationship she had with '42' as the answerher sometimes cruel and distant mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434023396</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1683690346|title=Quick Pint After WorkThe Con Artist|author=Luke LewisFred Van Lente

|summary=BuzzFeed is one Comic-Cons are a place of the world’s best time suckswonder and sanctuary for many people, and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's looking for both that and I’m regularly directed to the site by links from Facebook sanctuary with other fans and Twittercreators, in between browsing plus the app on my phonechance of maybe, just maybe reuniting with his ex. According to the author bio on this bookHowever, BuzzFeed when his rival is 'a social news and entertainment company'found dead, which Mike is a fancy way of describing lots forced to navigate every dark corner of fun lists that speak to the readership (20 words that have a completely different meaning con in Manchester, 30 Things all ex-gymnasts know order to be true, 40 Very British problems, yadda yadda yadda). These list work well on line when you want a quick distraction, clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and they’re easy intrusive fans to flip throughzombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, looking at the attached photos or video clips. The question thenin doing so, is whether or not BuzzFeed the book will have the same appealmay just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751557730</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graeme Simsion1473669588|title=The Rosie EffectFalling Short|author=Lex Coulton

|summary=Following inadvertent success with the Wife Project, Professor Don Tillman and his new bride Rosie have moved from Australia to New York. Although DonLex Coulton's position on the autistic scale debut novel is subjectivea story about mistakes, he still operates on a daily basis of structured proceduresfailures, lists and logicrelationships. Rosie can generally handle that but there are choppy waters ahead. With the patter of tiny feet imminent logic goes The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out the window as she struggles with her PhD while Don struggles to find his place in the baby production process. At least he has his drinking buddies to support him – an aging rock drummer and a best friend whose wife has thrown him out for infidelity. What could possibly go wrong?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718179471</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short Stories|author=Chuck PalahniukJackson, Dennis Widmyer a work colleague and Richard Thomas|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound rightis grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect This relationship is complicated by the fact that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them Frances's father disappeared at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said sea when she was wrongfive years old. Are you prepared to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sammy Looker1683690133|title=Something Nasty in the SlushpileMy Lady's Choosing|author=Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

|summary=I couldn't resist You are a lass of twenty-eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency-era London the title race is on to find a suitable suitor - a neat play on [[Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons|Cold Comfort Farm]] and I'm sure that or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey, you'll understand that I was expecting some examples of the horrors be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to be found amongst the mountain of unsolicited manuscripts which every publisher accumulatessave you from a life alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. IWhen it comes to suitors though, you'll confess I was expecting have to gigglemake the ultimate decision between witty, even to groan - unkindpretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, I know - rugged and I'd mentally shelved the book with the triviacaring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or (hopefully) the humourmad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. There is that element to With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artefacts along the bookway, but thereit's also something far more useful. If youclear this isn're thinking about publishing a book this should t going to be required reading ''before'' you even go near a publisheran easy decision...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472111028</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=The QueenStibbe_Xmas|title=Still ReigningAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5

|summary=Anyone who frequents Twitter will know Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey 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 a mixed blessing. Itall having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a mine time of wonderful information and supportive camaraderiegreat boons. It's also - unfortunately - home to cash in hand for a lot of plump people who take great pleasure in causing pain to others. But in amongst all this are a few gems can hire red suits and one of them is [https://twitter.com/Queen_UK @Queen_UK]beards, it was always a delightful satire on members of godsend for postmen with all the royal family, celebritiesthank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, the political classes and as for the state makers of Her Majesty's nation. OrMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, ''one's nation'' as Ma'am would say. ''Still Reigning'' is her second book, after ''Gin O'Clock'' did they even try and it's the sort sell them any other time of parody which leaves you wondering if the writer might not be someone ''very'' close to the original.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649132</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Doescher_Will|title=Last Days of William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Bus ClubSeventh|author=Chris StewartIan Doescher|rating=4.5

|summary=I could well have been A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a near-neighbour series of dramatic histories full of Chris Stewartmachinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. Not, You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of course, near his current primary occupancyoriginal stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', an ecological farmstead just beyond the turning off from but here at last we get the back end of nowhere in the most rural of corners of southern Spainactual script, but back when he lived complete with annoying-in the south-east of Englanddifferent-ways-to-before droids anew, being Genesis' first ever drummerreturning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and building bridges people keeping it in the North Downsfamily til it hurts. The fact I learnt the latter from this book shows up several of the features And if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of this warm-hearted 'travelogue' Henry VI – here the fact that Stewart series is never shy about portraying family details and history so popular we're on to part seven – given a good map and a prevailing wind one could find where he lives and descend on the farm, if one wished; and that while surely making this might be on the travel shelves, the narrative is so fragmented it actually moves a lot more than any of the characters do.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745436</amazonuk>over twice as good…