Why am I passionate about this?

I write books that I hope will make people laugh and feel better – so far, they are the three Jonathon Fairfax novels and a novella called The Pursuit of Coconuts. I suffer from depression, and have always found the world quite a difficult and confusing place, so – ever since I learned to read – I’ve escaped into books. Reading is so soothing and absorbing, and there’s something oddly intimate about joining an author inside a book. When a book’s genuinely funny, it feels as though – in a flash – it reveals the essential foolish absurdity of the world. I’ve listed five of the books that have worked that little miracle on me.


I wrote

The Spy Who Came in from the Bin

By Christopher Shevlin,

Book cover of The Spy Who Came in from the Bin

What is my book about?

This is the third of the Jonathon Fairfax novels, though you don’t have to read them in order. It was…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The books I picked & why

Book cover of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Christopher Shevlin Why did I love this book?

Looking through the small ads in the back of my parents’ newspaper (we got really bored before the internet), I saw one for a holistic detective agency – ‘missing cats and messy divorces a speciality’. My sister dared me to call. When I did, I heard a message saying, ‘This is Dirk Gently. If you’d like to leave a message, you can’t.’ It then revealed the existence of the book, which of course I bought.

It’s my favourite Douglas Adams: set in the real world, but standing at a finely calculated distance from reality. There’s the character who’s killed early on, but continues regardless. There’s the software that tells you why it’s a good idea to do whatever it is you want to do (the Pentagon uses an outdated version). There’s the sofa that gets wedged in a staircase in contravention of all known physics.

Then there’s Dirk himself, a living enigma who spends much of the book eating pizza. And there’s his immortal phrase ‘the fundamental interconnectedness of all things’, which allows him to search for a missing cat by, for example, going on holiday to Spain.

The book was, and remains, a magical thing.

By Douglas Adams,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Douglas Adams, the legendary author of one of the most beloved science fiction novels of all time, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, comes a wildly inventive novel of ghosts, time travel, and one detective’s mission to save humanity from extinction.

DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY
We solve the whole crime
We find the whole person
Phone today for the whole solution to your problem
(Missing cats and messy divorces a specialty)

Douglas Adams, the “master of wacky words and even wackier tales” (Entertainment Weekly) once again boggles the mind with a completely unbelievable story of ghosts, time travel,…


Book cover of 1066 and All That

Christopher Shevlin Why did I love this book?

This was among the first (and by far the best) of my parents’ books that I borrowed.

The premise is charming: after a long and careful study of British history, your memory will retain only a small quantity of garbled nonsense; so why not save time by just reading the garbled nonsense? At its best, it’s so freewheelingly, surreally silly that I still vividly remember crying with laughter. There were bits – like the names of the Wave of Pretenders – that made me laugh every time I read them.

It was a revelation to me that adults – and even adults from the past – could have brains that were just as silly, odd, and obscure as children’s.

By W C Sellar, R J Yeatman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 1066 and All That as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Canute began by being a Bad King on the advice of his Courtiers, who informed him (owing to a misunderstanding of the Rule Britannia) that the King of England was entitled to sit on the sea without getting wet." 1066 And All That is a book that has itself become part of our history. The authors made the claim that "All the History you can remember is in the Book" and, for most of us, they were probably right. But it is their own unique interpretation of events that has made the book a classic; an uproarious satire on textbook…


Book cover of Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

Christopher Shevlin Why did I love this book?

I read this during a period of temping when I was at university, and it was like an enchanted escape capsule from my job.

It was written in the late nineteenth century, but it doesn’t have the kind of starchy, pious formality of a lot of writing from that time. It feels very free and very modern, rooted in the details of everyday life that probably stay quite constant throughout history – like cheeky kids, the failure of all forms of waterproofing, and how annoying our friends are when we’re confined with them for any length of time.

It’s based on Jerome’s honeymoon trip up the Thames, but with his wife diplomatically replaced by two imaginary friends and a dog.

By Jerome K Jerome, A Frederics (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Three Men in a Boat, published in 1889, became an instant success and has never been out of print. In its first twenty years alone, the book sold over a million copies worldwide. It has been adapted to films, TV, and radio shows, stage plays, and a musical, and influenced subsequent writers such as P. G. Wodehouse, James Thurber, and Nick Hornby. It ranks among The Guardian’s top one hundred best English novels of all time.

Jerome’s light comic prose overtook what was intended as a series of magazine articles about the scenery and history of the Thames and became…


Book cover of The World of Jeeves

Christopher Shevlin Why did I love this book?

I’d never read any PG Wodehouse before I found this in a second-hand bookshop on Charing Cross Road. My edition is a huge and ancient green volume that looks like a book of magic – and it is.

It contains all the Jeeves and Wooster stories from the very beginning till the end of their golden age. And they’re in order, so you see the characters and style develop, and watch Bertie follow PG himself to America and back.

It came to me just when I needed it most: I had an absolutely horrible job at the time, the sort where you start dreading Monday morning around about lunchtime on Saturday. Being able to slip away into these stories was like owning a portal to a better world. They contain so many pleasures.

For one thing, PG can construct a sentence that somehow transcends its constituent words to become almost unbearably precious and charming. For another, the stories let you slip away into a parallel life in which you have a private income, a Mayfair flat and an omnipotent servant.

You rise late, eat breakfast in bed, bathe and dress, then stroll through London to your club. Your only problems are caused by overbearing aunts, friends in need and your own good nature. Occasionally, you bicker with Jeeves, but in the end he gets you out of whatever jam you’re in, and you reciprocate by destroying the vulgar shoes/tie/socks of which he disapproves. There has never been a better way to wash away reality.

By P G Wodehouse,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The World of Jeeves as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Augustus Carp Esquire, by Himself

Christopher Shevlin Why did I love this book?

This is the strangest of the books I’ve chosen. I found it by accident while looking for something else in the British Library, and loved it immediately. The writer was George VI’s doctor, and this is his only novel.

On the surface, it’s the story of a grotesquely unlikeable and hypocritical father and son. But I prefer to ignore that and just enjoy its completely unique voice. The whole book is like a PG Wodehouse sentence: somehow transcending its literal meaning to become almost magically pleasing. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you enjoy the phrase ‘the aunt that had stood with my mother’s mother at the foot of the stairs’ then you’ll like it.

By Henry Howarth Bashford,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Augustus Carp Esquire, by Himself as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Churchwarden, Sunday school superintendent, and President of the St Potamus Purity League, Augustus Carp is assiduous in exposing the sins and foibles of others while studiously ignoring his own. Although he campaigns against lechery, drinking, and smoking, he manages to indulge himself in plenty of other vices in the name of piety. The more seriously Carp takes himself, the more ridiculous he becomes. His frequent falls from dignity are uproarious—from his inability to climb off buses without falling over to his lifelong problems with flatulence. As a satire on hypocrisy, there is nothing quite like it in English prose.


Explore my book 😀

The Spy Who Came in from the Bin

By Christopher Shevlin,

Book cover of The Spy Who Came in from the Bin

What is my book about?

This is the third of the Jonathon Fairfax novels, though you don’t have to read them in order. It was inspired by my two years living in Berlin, and in particular the odd few days I spent being mistakenly treated in a stroke ward.

The book begins with Jonathon Fairfax waking up in a bin (that’s a trashcan for American readers), having no idea who he is. He’s taken to hospital for treatment, and that’s when people start trying to assassinate him. At this point he only knows three things about himself: he’s polite, he likes tea, and everyone wants to kill him. Jonathon has to find out why, how to get them to stop, and what the CIA has got to do with all this.

You might also like...

Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

By Elizabeth Randall, William Randall,

Book cover of Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Elizabeth Randall Author Of Fire is the Test of Gold

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Reader Baker Teacher Matriarch Adventurer

Elizabeth's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Tourists and local residents of St. Augustine will enjoy reading about the secret wonders of their ancient city that are right under their noses. Of course, that includes a few stray corpses and ghosts!

Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

By Elizabeth Randall, William Randall,

What is this book about?

It is no wonder the ancient city of St. Augustine is steeped in secrets. St. Johns, the oldest continuously occupied county in America celebrated its 450th birthday on September 4, 2015. More like a European enclave than an urban landscape, it is a place of cannon fire, street parties, historical reenactments, concerts, and more. From admiring replicas of fine art at Ripley’s Believe or Not, to hunting haunts in restaurants and museums, to eating ice cream from a recipe originated by World War II bombardiers, St. Augustine has it all from beaches, gourmet dining, festivals, and attractions. A young and…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in private investigators, presidential biography, and murder?

Murder 1,032 books