Humor Memoir

Bestselling children's author Andy Stanton has made a career out of writing differently—from the unconventional ‘hero' of his bestselling Mr Gum series to his penchant for absurdist plots, his children's books are anything but formulaic. When a friend introduces him to ChatGPT, the new large language chatbot, Andy is as sceptical as he is curious. Can this jumble of algorithms really mimic the spontaneity of human thought? Could it one day replace human authors like him for good? And are we soon to be ruled over by despotic robot overlords.

Paul Sinha is an award-winning comedian, a quizzing mastermind and a happily married husband. But it hasn't always been this way. As a boy, Paul struggled to find his place in a world where he didn't quite fit. Who was he? A smart young man with the world's knowledge at his fingertips? A traditional Bengali son, destined for a career in medicine that he didn't want? A gay man who couldn't quite come out? A man on a self-destruct mission? Amid life's chaos, it was general knowledge that kept Paul sane, even as he struggled into a new life as a stand-up comedian.

Twenty years after leaving London, Nina Stibbe is back in town with her dog, Peggy. Together they take up lodging in the house of writer Deborah (Debby) Moggach in Camden for 'a year-long sabbatical'. It’s a break from married life back in Cornwall, or even perhaps a fresh start altogether. Nina is not quite sure yet. Debby does not have many demands – only to water the garden, watch for toads, and defrost the odd pie – so Nina is free to explore the city she once called home.

Follow Nicole as she gives you a front-row seat to a Medevac deployment to Saudi Arabia. Meet her unit, military working dogs, local Saudis, and the good and bad that being away from home for your country encompasses. From preparing to leave, heading overseas, the transition home, and everything involved in each stage... From learning crochet to sprinting to bunkers during air attacks, this audiobook will leave you with a heightened sense of what a year away looks like, the sacrifices military members make, and the humor that gets us through it all.

Lee Evans is one of the best-loved comedians in the country; a Hollywood star able to sell out arenas in the blink of eye. But he was not always such a roaring success. Read unabridged by the man himself, the audiobook edition of The Life of Lee is an utterly hilarious and very moving autobiography, charting his ups and downs on the way to the top.

AN ENCOUNTER is the story of Macu, a young man who leaves his tribe on his first solo hunting trip. Hoping to prove himself by killing and carrying home a small deer, his encounter turns out to be of a much more singular and fateful nature. An entertaining and instructive story suitable for readers of all ages.

Ade Edmondson smashed onto the comedy circuit in the 1980s, stormed The Comedy Store and, alongside Rik Mayall, brought anarchy to stage and screen. How did a child brought up in a strict Methodist household – and who spent his formative years incarcerated in repressive boarding schools – end up joining the revolution? Well, he is part Norse. Could it be his berserker heritage? With wisdom, nostalgia and uniquely observed humour, Ade traces his journey through life and comedy.

"Olifson's witty and self-deprecating essays perfectly capture the frantic race to grow up just a little bit before your kids do." (Gemma Baker, writer/producer and co-creator of Mom)

For as long as Daisy May Cooper can remember, she's been fascinated with the unexplained. Ghosts, spirits, tea leaves, astrological charts, paranormal activity - you name it, she's been obsessed!

I Will Never Forget is the powerful true story of the author Elaine’s talented mother's extraordinary journey through Dementia. Through superb stories from Elaine’s childhood, including her controversial name, tales of smokin’ dragons, and the feisty teenage years, Betty Ward’s wonderful character is revealed. Over time, as their relationship evolves and a new paradigm is formed, her mother begins to exhibit goofy behaviors, uncharacteristic verbal assaults, and bizarre thinking.

Years ago, Steve Hannah’s chance detour through the Midwest cut short a planned cross-country trip. He found himself in Wisconsin, a distinctly different place from the East Coast, where he was born and raised. Charmingly beautiful and full of welcoming people, America’s dairyland would soon become his home. Dairylandia recounts Steve Hannah’s burgeoning love for his adopted state through the writings of his long-lived column, “State of Mind”.

‘I never once attended a Sunday morning church service in Stanford. There was always the feeling that they weren’t aimed at families like ours.’ Pam Ayres was the sixth child in a hard-up family who lived in a council house, her parents’ generation were harrowed by the war. Yet they lived by the green in the village of Stanford in the Vale, where everything you needed was within walking distance and the sound of motorcars was rarely heard.

The stand-up comedian of his generation. Star of stage and screen. Tireless supporter of charity. Runner. Political campaigner. Fashion icon. Human. There is no one quite like Eddie Izzard. This is the story of how a boy who wanted to become a professional footballer and win the lead in Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat found comedy.

This second collection of Debbie Young's lighthearted yet thoughtful columns for the Tetbury Advertiser record the author's thoughts during the tumultuous five-year period from 2016 through 2020 - the era of Brexit and of President Trump - when even in her quiet corner of the Cotswolds, it often seemed the world had gone mad. Charming the readers of this multiple-award-winning community magazine with her homespun philosophy, with playful wit and with vivid imagination, Debbie Young provides a sense of perspective about what really matters in life.

What does it mean to be Jew(ish) in 2020? Caught between tradition and modernity, between a Jewish family and a non-Jewish son, Matt Greene ponders the big questions concerning identity, religion, family and Seinfeld. When his son was born to a non-Jewish mother, Matt began to consider the upbringing he'd put behind him - the sense of not belonging, the forbidden foods, the holidays that felt more like punishments.

Roger Lewis, in his no-holds-barred biography, exposes a Peter Sellers the world little knows. Recognized as the greatest British comic since Charlie Chaplin, Sellers was the grand master of fifty-five films - from Dr. Strangelove, to Being There and the Pink Panther hits. But shadowing his phenomenal career was a history of increasingly bizarre behaviour involving psychotic violence, compulsive promiscuity, drug abuse and humiliating self-destructive obsessions with people including Princess Margaret, Sophia Loren, Liza Minnelli and each of his four wives.

From Benjamin Franklin's newspaper hoax that faked the death of his rival to Abbie Hoffman's attempt to levitate the Pentagon - pranksters, hoaxers, and con artists have caused confusion, disorder, and laughter in Western society for centuries. Profiling the most notorious mischief-makers from the 1600s to the present day, Pranksters explores how "pranks" are part of a long tradition of speaking truth to power and social critique.

From a childhood spent making smoke bombs, killing wasps and carving soap in '70s Kent, Harry Hill then found himself in charge of hundreds of sick people as a junior doctor. Out of his depth and terrified, he chucked it all in to pursue his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian. Battling his way through the '90s comedy circuit, he quickly rose to become a household name and one of the UK's most celebrated comics, almost making it to the top of the showbiz tree.

The stark and inhospitable high-elevation landscape of Nevada’s Great Basin Desert may not be an obvious (or easy) place to settle down, but for self-professed desert rat Michael Branch it’s home. Of course, living in such an unforgiving landscape gives one many things to rant about. Fortunately for us, Branch—humorist, environmentalist, and author of Raising Wild—is a prodigious ranter.

In 1978, Kim "Howard" Johnson ran away to join the circus - Monty Python's Flying Circus, that is. The Pythons converged on Tunisia to film their timeless classic Life of Brian, and Howard found himself in the thick of it, doubling for nearly all the Pythons, playing more roles in the film than John Cleese, and managing to ruin only one shot. He became the unit journalist, substitute still photographer, Roman soldier, peasant, near-stalker, and, ultimately, friend and confidant of the comedy legends.