I’m Steve Sheppard and I’m arguably the best person in the UK to create this list as I am myself the archetypal funny author whom nobody has heard of, having written three comedy spy thrillers, two out (A Very Important Teapot and Bored to Death in the Baltics) and one on the way (Poor Table Manners), all published by a genuine indie publisher, Claret Press. I would have loved to include a funny thriller in my list, but sadly, they are not to be found–not without resorting to farce and slapstick anyway.
It is a comedy thriller involving the hunt for a lost cache of Nazi diamonds. Dawson’s life is going nowhere. Out of work, nearly out of money, and forlornly pursuing the love of Rachel Whyte, he is unexpectedly offered a job by a man he thinks is his best friend. The job involves heading to Australia to await further instructions. Instructions which turn out to consist of one word: Yackandandah.
Once there, Dawson finds himself being chased around northern Victoria by spies from three different countries, Rachel’s solicitor fiance, the local underworld boss and his minions, the police, and the glamorous Lucy. Why? He has no idea until he finally arrives in Yackandandah, and the secret of the teapot is revealed.
A delightful book, a complete treat, certainly the funniest I’ve read in recent years as well as one of the most original. How it wasn’t picked up by a major publisher is beyond me, especially given Sue Clark’s background in television comedy scriptwriting.
The way Sue manages so realistically to get inside the head of both the aged and yet ageless ex-fashion icon, Eloise, and Bradley, a south London council estate lad with dreams above his station, is astonishing. Writing in the first person is hard enough, but to do it so successfully for two such disparate characters is extraordinarily clever. It is no easy thing to make the reader believe so thoroughly in their highly unlikely, blossoming (business) partnership.
Eloise is an erratic, faded fashionista. Bradley is a glum but wily teenager.
In need of help to write her racy 1960s memoirs, the former 'shock frock' fashion guru tolerates his common ways. Unable to remember his name, she calls him Boy. Desperate to escape a brutal home life, he puts up with her bossiness and confusing notes.
Both guard secrets. How did she lose her fame and fortune? What is he scheming - beyond getting his hands on her bank card? And just what's hidden in that mysterious locked room?
There are a great many comedy novels out there written in a diary format, some of them very well-known. Most of the ones I’ve read have proved disappointing: the comedy is either weak or not sustained. And you wouldn’t think the market could cope with another version of “harassed housewife humour.”
Well, you’d be wrong. Jane Ions’ book is not only original, but her style is guffaw-out-loud hilarious. A treat from start to finish. This is a really funny book, and the author’s writing style is right up my street.
Sally's son Dan has come back home from college after completing his performing arts degree. He needs rent-free accommodation, friends, a love life, and somewhere to perform his arts. Sally herself is taking a career break from teaching English. She's tired of teaching year eleven pupils about the Mockingbird. She wants to kill the bird and stuff it with all the redundant apostrophe's' she's ever seen in twenty years of marking essays. She needs a rest. She does not need her adult son Dan, his current girlfriend, his previous girlfriend and his old school friend to move in and share…
This is a hugely entertaining, wickedly funny and deliciously satirical novel with a wide cast of characters. if the title puts you off, don't let it. An imaginative, slightly weird, definitely non-pc read which might not be to everyone’s tastes but was certainly to mine.
Tangle is a tree-hugger who is often mistaken for a glamorous witch. She is proud of her organic smallholding in the heart of Africa. When threatened by a bullying and corrupt businessman who starts trashing the environment and the local people, who can she turn to? Surely not that foul-mouthed Aussie TV presenter, nor those famous and fabulously wealthy international holidaymakers, who suddenly invade her precious patch. And how could an international food-eating competition, sponsored by the USA’s tin-eared goodwill ambassador, solve her problems? Surrounded by xenophobic bickering, Tangle struggles to assert her authority, aided by some unlikely admirers. The…
This is another fictional diary but different again. To say I enjoyed it is an understatement. This is a witty, engaging, satirical romp of a journal with laugh-out-loud moments, an empathetic everyman protagonist, a full cast of colourful supporting characters, and a rich background, mainly in Amsterdam.
I whipped through the book in a couple of days and was left hoping that we might find out what happens to Gerard "next year." All in all, thoroughly entertaining.
Bellamy is comfortably the most well-known of the authors here but still nowhere near as well-known as he deserves to be. Bellamy is sadly now no longer with us but this, his first book is his best-known and probably his funniest, although the rest of his canon is also well worth the effort.
There are few things funnier than the tale of the downtrodden male with high hopes and little to back those hopes up, and Bobby Booth’s is the funniest of the lot. Auberon Waugh liked it, and you can hardly have a better recommendation.
It is Christmas time in a small, modern, utterly featureless town somewhere in the Home Counties, where Bobby Booth lives.The main preoccupations of its inhabitants are drink – at the pub generally known as the Planet of the Apes because it is frequented by so many long-haired young men – and gossip, which at Bobby’s closest friend Roland’s Christmas party turns into violence…Bobby manages a launderette for Roland, who is gross, periodically rich and a man without illusions. Previously Bobby was a schoolteacher whose class was interrupted one fateful day by slim, blonde journalist, Caroline. Despite Roland’s warning – he…
As a young doctor, Carl Holman has experienced the horrors of World War I and the death of his lover, a fellow officer. Back home after the War, he befriends a young jazz musician who he hopes will become a companion he can share his life with. But this is Oregon: the Ku Klux Klan is gaining influence, homosexual acts are illegal, and such a relationship will jeopardize Carl’s promising medical career.
Musician Jimmy Harper has his own dreams for the future and his own obstacles to overcome before he will allow himself to accept Carl’s love. More than a gay love story, Acquaintance is a deep dive into gay and lesbian history based on extensive period research of the 1920s.
As a young surgeon, Carl Holman has experienced the horrors of World War I and the loss of his lover, a fellow officer. Back home after the war, he befriends a young jazz musician who he hopes will become a companion he can share his life with. But this is Oregon: the Ku Klux Klan is gaining influence, homosexual acts are illegal, and such a relationship will jeopardize Carl’s promising medical career. Musician Jimmy Harper has his own dreams for the future and his own obstacles to overcome before he will allow himself to accept Carl’s love. Acquaintance is a…
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