Biography Humor

AMAZED BY SPAIN is a light-hearted account of two couples’ unexpected relocation to inland Alicante. Before sisters Sue and Linda inherit a village house in the hills they have little interest in Spain, but on travelling out to see their new possession they begin to warm to the idea of spending time there with their husbands Paul and Bill. After an enjoyable summer holiday the prospect of living in the village becomes irresistible and this book describes their transition from visitors to residents and the diverse selection of people they meet along the way. This amusing and informative ...

When Nigel Hamson arrives at the quiet village in Extremadura, no-one knows who he is or what he is doing there. Over the following weeks his eccentric behaviour intrigues the villagers, but little by little his intentions become clear, first to himself, and then to the people he befriends. In Ways of Escape – An Outsider in Spain, we follow Nigel’s first stumbling steps to carve out a new life for himself in the Spanish hinterland, as he adjusts his own needs and aspirations to those of the close-knit community. Both light-hearted and informative, this unusual account of a man striving...

CAVEMAN: A QUEST FOR FREEDOM IN SPAIN is a humorous, thought-provoking new novel by the author of SPANISH JOURNALS: THE POSTHUMOUS DIARY OF AN EXPAT. Tom Worsley, retired postman of forty-three, is fed up of life in his Lancashire town and decides to head off to live in a cave in southern Spain. There he plans to get back to basics and lead a life of simplicity, cultivate his mind, and improve his Spanish. None of his new friends in the nearby village can dissuade him from pursuing his singular goal, but after his cave is discovered by outsiders, his life becomes a good deal more complicated.

For the first time, comedian Jack Dee reveals the highs and lows of his early life and disastrous day jobs. You don't just wake up jaundiced and bitter; it's taken Jack years of dedication and commitment to brew his unique cocktail of disillusionment and bile. What turned this once optimistic young man into a grumpy middle-aged git? Was it working in an artificial-leg factory?

EL ESPERADO REGRESO DE MARUJA TORRES. Vivir para contarlo. Tal vez sea una frase muy manida, pero lo cierto es que resume a la perfección el retorno a las librerías de una de las voces más descaradas de nuestro país. Maruja Torres saca punta a las rutinas de su día a día para conservar los destellos de un mundo que se apaga a través de reflexiones hilarantes sobre vivir más (o menos) y mejor (o como se pueda). Un divertido y afilado ejercicio de adaptación a una vida que justo se empieza a comprender cuando nos acercamos al final de la escalera.

On December 22, 1953, Mort Sahl took the stage at San Francisco's hungry i and changed comedy forever. Before him, standup was about everything but hard news and politics. In his wake, a new generation of smart comics emerged - Shelley Berman, Mike Nichols, and Elaine May, Lenny Bruce, Bob Newhart, Dick Gregory, Woody Allen, and the Smothers Brothers, among others.

In the fourth and final part of Ernest Postlethwaite’s ground-breaking journal, our hero returns from an unexpectedly eventful trip to England more determined than ever to pursue his dream of achieving total integration into Spanish village life. What could possibly go wrong?

When Adrian and Celia Chisholm learn that their Marbella home is to be seized by the authorities of the fledgling state of Nueva Andalucia, all thanks to Britain’s much delayed exit from the crumbling European Union, they visit their resourceful neighbour Eric to see what he plans to do. On learning that Britons are being imprisoned in droves, they recruit Eric’s young friend Hayley and the four of them head for the hills… THE BREXIT BRIGANDS, SPAIN 2022 is a story set, as the title suggests, in the near future. Please ‘look inside’ before purchasing.

THE OPPORTUNIST – AN ENTERPRISING LIFE IN SPAIN is Craig K. Kirkland’s account of his inventive and ignoble efforts to make his fortune. After a rather unscrupulous apprenticeship in the north midlands he is forced to flee abroad to further his ambitions and in this amusing chronicle he recounts his unethical exploits with brazen honesty. Mr Kirkland’s eye-opening tale of ingenuity and avarice, though not for the overly righteous, makes for an entertaining and thought-provoking read. This book is not intended as an instruction manual and the publisher does not condone the author’s ...

When a man called Bryan arrives in the Murcian village everyone is curious to know why he has come, not least Peter, the author of this account. Having arrived by taxi with one small bag, Bryan rents a house for cash, befriends both locals and expats, meets a dark mystery woman in Caravaca de la Cruz, and begins to behave very oddly indeed. Peter and his pals, eager to ascertain what this enigmatic chap is up to, begin by monitoring his every move, but Peter’s wife Carol, an initially reluctant sleuth, urges them to employ a more softly-softly approach in order to catch him out. When ...

SPIKE IN SPAIN is the light-hearted story of a peculiar Lancastrian’s relocation to a small town at the foot of the Alicante mountains. An obsessive cyclist and the bane of his long-suffering wife’s life, Spike finds himself booted out of the family home and consigned to a grotty terraced house in Colne. Believing, incorrectly, that an old clubmate has invited him to stay at his Spanish retreat, a spell of lateral thinking by the cycling club president, Pete, leads to Spike’s flight to his old pal Mike’s house instead. As the charitable Mike has already rescued three donkeys and a ...

When Janet and Colin Paddison move into their dream home in the countryside inland from Valencia they hope to enjoy a tranquil retirement, especially Colin, an ex-librarian whose desire for peace and quiet has been a lifelong obsession. A boarded-up bar in a nearby hamlet has been closed for years, but when Miguelito the builder sets about restoring the place Colin begins to fear the worst. SEEKING SERENITY IN SPAIN is Janet’s humorous and somewhat fanciful account of her husband’s tireless campaign to hinder the new owners’ efforts to shatter their rural idyll. Colin begins by ...

AN INNOCENT IN SPAIN is the light-hearted account of an unlikely expat’s first months in his new country. Ian Smith might not be the first tubby, middle-aged Englishman to arrive in a small Spanish town, but he’s certainly one of the poorest and most naive. Luckily for him, long-time resident Graham Baker is on hand to help him settle in and somehow survive on his meagre savings. After an initial, potentially calamitous blunder Ian appears to rally, but it’s only a matter of time before he finds himself in dire straits once again. Will he have to return to Lancashire, more penniless ...

‘Making Friends – A Spanish Memoir’ is a book of reminiscences based on real people and events, commencing in the late summer of the year 2000. A humorous, informative and sometimes poignant account of a young Englishman’s discovery of a whole new world beyond the boundaries of the expat teaching community, his friendships with Antonio, Dominic, Pedrín and others at first complicate then enrich his life in the Spanish city of Murcia. In an account that takes us from seedy bars, through rock group rehearsals, to valiant attempts to help the eccentric and rather unstable Antonio sell...

Randall Stevens, at 20 years old in 1966, was a wide-eyed, naive boy still a year away from being able to claim adulthood at that magic age of 21. Having come up with the idea to join one of the best state police organizations in the nation, he began the journey to become a Massachusetts State Police Trooper.

Chapters include, among others, “9 Non-threatening Leadership Strategies for Women,” "How to Ace Your Job Interview Without Over-acing It," and “Choose Your Own Adventure: Do You Want to Be Likable or Successful?” Each chapter also features an exercise with a set of "inaction items" designed to challenge women to be less challenging.

Have you ever been curious what happens when you take a leap of faith into entrepreneurship? Unfulfilled in her corporate job, and frustrated with dating app options, I Failed, is a humorous recounting of Whitney Linscott’s attempt to launch a dating app. This book pulls the curtain back on what it's really like to be an entrepreneur and has more twists, turns, and hair raising scares than a roller coaster at a carnival that was assembled by a drunk orangutan.

UPCOTE, a self-styled gentleman of leisure who subsidises his state hand-outs with a little wheeling and dealing on the side meets the struggling SMYTHE and sets out to help his young protégé of fifty-three fulfil his true and hitherto well-concealed potential. With the help of Upcote’s indomitable Aunt Mabel and under the sceptical scrutiny of coin-obsessed café owner Bob, the two men set out to put their sartorial and cultural superiority on a sound financial footing. Dodging the slings and arrows of outraged punters our two heroes push, swerve and stumble onwards towards their dream...

G-Is for String is the story of a gullible college girl who dreamed of being a dancer all her life. When her friends encouraged her to enter an amateur dance contest in Rochester, New York, she fell into the world of exotic dancing and stripping. She spent the next thirteen years of life perfecting her performance art in places where artistry was a pleasant surprise.

For more than two decades, Gerry Dee has made audiences laugh, first as a hard-working stand-up comedian, and then as the star of his own CBC television program, Mr. D. Dee became a physical education teacher, thinking he would have it made: coaching, summers off and a good pension. But he found himself dreaming of a career in comedy, until one day, years later, he turned in his teaching certificate and picked up a microphone. He went on to become one of Canada’s top comics.