Humour 23 69055 SATURDAY NIGHT PETER: Memoirs of


64639 HISTORY OF THE BEANO:


The Story So Far


by D. C. Thomson & Co. The official Beano history in one magnificent black and red tome measuring 12" square. On 30th July 1938, a rainbow of colour emerged into the lives of children in bleak, pre-war Britain. The


Beano was born. To celebrate its 70th year and as a tribute to yesterdays fans and today’s enthusiasts, the publisher D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd themselves proudly present this lavishly illustrated history. Characters like Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger and Minnie the Minx were introduced to universal acclaim. And what was the name of the spotty kid? Ping the Elastic Man, Pansy Potter and Lord Snooty, how Edric won a dragon’s tooth - to save the magic sword, Little Plum, the Laughing Pirate, Billy the Cat and Katie and the Bash Street Kids are among the cast on parade. Also covers the Dandy comic with Korky the Cat, the ‘big brother’ edition called the BeanoMax and the third series of Dennis and Gnasher animations in production. Beautifully


reproduced archival artworks. 352pp. Still full price, we have permission to retail at a discount!


£25 NOW £16


number 13 so unlucky? Is ‘fourth-dimensional thinking’ really out of this world? What prompted Ray Bradbury to call his novel Fahrenheit 451 and how did 007 become James Bond’s number? You may be intrigued to know that the Infinite Monkey Theorem was recently tested by placing a computer with macaques in a zoo enclosure. Not only did they fail to type the works of Shakespeare but they also attempted to destroy the computer with a rock, as well as using it as a toilet! However, the experiment was slightly invalidated by there being a mere six monkeys instead of the postulated infinite number. A joy of a book. 174 pages with delightful line drawings and short glossary of mathematical terms. £14.95 NOW £5


67574 CRAP MPs: The 40 Worst Members of Parliament in History


by Bendor Grosvenor and Geoffrey Hicks


A motley collection of rogues, liars, murderers, philanderers, madmen and criminals. This unforgettable and often hilarious list will have you booing, hissing, laughing out loud


and holding your head in your hands in amazement. With colour and b/w illus. of the miscreants. 88pp. £7.99 NOW £2.50


68978 MAKING THE CAT LAUGH by Lynne Truss


A funny, touching and completely unique diary of life as a modern single woman. When Lynne Truss returned to single life after years of cohabitation it threw up some surprising problems. How do you avoid to going to married people’s houses with out point-blankly refusing? Why is it not OK for a woman to go to the cinema on her own, and eat two boxes of fruit pastilles? And, the greatest problem of all, when your cats are the most important personalities in your life, just how do you make them laugh? With startling candour. 212pp in paperback.


£8.99 NOW £3.75


69036 DON’T GET ME STARTED: The Very Grumpy Guide to the Most Annoying Aspects of


Everyday Life by Mitchell Symons All the irritations of the modern world are here - hilarious, entertaining and downright therapeutic. People who use finger signs to denote quotation marks, talking birthday cards that just will not shut up, train journeys that are more expensive than flights to the same destination, pubs that advertise things happening TONITE and Brian Sewell’s voice are just a few of life’s annoyances, up with which Mr Symons just will not put. 248 page paperback.


£7.99 NOW £2.50 70032 IT MUST BE TRUE:


Classic Newspaper Howlers Bloomers and Misprints by Denys Parsons


From the Church Gazette, ‘The Reverend had derived great benefit from his holiday and is returning this week to his cuties.’ ‘Woman kicked by her husband said to be greatly improved.’ ‘Madrid proposes to utilise the water brought to the city by an old camel…’ ‘300 emigrants arrived here today by train 90% of


them being people of both sexes.’ - Irish newspaper. And the Manchester Evening News, ‘Passengers hit by cancelled trains’. Delightful editorial bungles, hilarious unintentional meanings, and accidents of typesetting have led to a bizarre and glorious breed of nonsense in this fine collection of newspaper clangers. ‘Ears pierced whilst you wait’, ‘Strong boy or youth wanted for mating on motor lorry’, ‘In conclusion sir I enclose my card and remains, yours truly’ and many hundreds more under categories Births, Deaths and Marriages, The Church, Medicals, Military, Domestic, Crime and more. 272pp in paperback with cartoons. £6.99 NOW £3.50


69040 GARFIELD TREASURY 6 by Jim Davis The orange and black striped cat Garfield has kept us laughing for many years and here Jim Davis’ creation tickles our funny bone with his antics through no less than 80 full colour, full page cartoon strips. ‘Garfield, why don’t you eat mice like other cats?’ ‘I don’t like to hurt mice. How can I get that through your thick skull?’ Large softback. £10.99 NOW £4


a Stand-Up Comedian by Peter Kay Peter Kay needs no introduction from us, and this second volume of his autobiography follows the immensely successful The Sound of Laughter. We tag along with him to the Edinburgh Festival in 1987 where he wins the Channel 4 “So You Think You’re Funny” competition, and is shortlisted for the Perrier award. The next few years see him relentlessly touring and meeting with a host of unforgettable characters, from chainsaw-juggling lizards to suicidal magicians. His stand-up career hits its zenith with the 180-night sell-out Mum Wants a Bungalow tour (still Britain’s bestselling stand-up DVD), which ended at the Manchester Arena on his 30th birthday. 258pp, colour and b/w photos. £20 NOW £4


69927 THAT’S LIFE: Quotes and Quips on Being Human


by Crombie Jardine Publishing


‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.’ - William Shakespeare. ‘I intend to live forever, or die trying.’ - Groucho Marx. No doubt you will be seeing a great number of these pithy aphorisms and witty quotes in future editions of Bibliophile under our subject headers as we have thoroughly enjoyed browsing this one and pausing for thought. From Marcus Aurelius to Aldous Huxley here are comedians, philosophers, religious people, entertainers and politicians (index of names with dates provided) and, as usual, Oscar Wilde has the winning number of entries. 160pp. £7.99 NOW £3


70025 DO SHEEP SHRINK IN THE RAIN? by 82ASK


You can text any question to 82275 or 82ASK the Internet company and get a truthful answer to absolutely any question you ask within minutes. Now they have committed many of their favourites to a natty little paperback. What is the oldest language in the world? What is the largest animal you can knock out with one punch? Which country has the most beautiful girls? When were contact lenses invented? How many trees are there in the whole world? Does llama dung have any odour? And why can’t cows walk downstairs? No, they are not Daleks in disguise! 243pp. £7.99 NOW £3


70024 CONFESSIONS OF A


COUNTRY BOY by Keith Skipper


Here is a real Norfolk dumpling who knows where to pour the gravy of common sense in the way he writes and talks and feels about his home county of Norfolk. This is Skipper in his richest vein, sharp and witty, occasionally disrespectful, always affectionate, the last person to take himself or anyone else seriously.


Keith Skipper writes with an acute ear for dialogue long- remembered and an artist’s eye for a Norfolk landscape or just as likely, farmyard or playground. He is ‘the irresistible purveyor of earthy Norfolk culture.’ Big full page illus with fun captions in 174 page softback. £9.99 NOW £3.50


70071 LUCKY BUGGER’S CASEBOOK by Daniel Smith


Many of the anecdotes in the book are serendipitous in the purest sense. A lot tell of individuals who discovered something like an idea, a product or a thing that was long lost when they hadn’t been looking for it in the first place. Hear about the Japanese trader who made a fortune after a share price typo, the fight that landed Mel Gibson his first major film, the German novelist who lost his manuscript on a train only to find it wrapped around the fish supper he bought at the station and many more of history’s luckiest buggers who experienced unexpected good fortune. Dozens of anecdotes to enjoy. 212pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £3.50


70157 A SURREY STATE OF AFFAIRS by Ceri Radford


Constance Harding’s comfortable corner of the Home Counties is her own little piece of heaven. Her time is spent party planning and dreaming of the hat aisles at John Lewis. But she is about to learn that her perfect home conceals scandals that would make the vicar blush. Her Lithuanian housekeeper’s underwear keeps appearing in her husband’s study, her parrot has gained a troubling new vocabulary and her daughter is turning into a gap-year strumpet. As her family falls apart, Constance embarks on an extraordinary journey. From tripping in Ibiza to riding with a handsome Argentinean gaucho whose only words in English are Britney and Spears, Constance discovers a wider world she thought it was too late to find. 305pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £2.50


70163 100 OF THE BEST CURSES AND INSULTS IN SPANISH


by Rachel Perez and Antonio Martinez This will get you into real trouble in Spain! Alongside the book is a small black box which has on it recorded 24 foul phrases, insults and things you hear in the street and never in your textbook. A vulgar sense of humour is one thing, but your sidekick’s conversation is really de mal gusto (in poor taste). There are 45 situations like someone in Portugal can’t hear you, loco flamenco, in vino veritas and running of the bullies plus five ways to get slapped by a woman, five ways to insult a guy’s manhood, insults that could get you lynched, and five of the best ‘your mother’ insults included. So if your waiter charges you 25 euros for bottled water, you need no longer feel powerless! Use carefully. 96pp. Cartoon illus. ONLY £3


70196 OUT OF THE WOODS BUT NOT OVER THE HILL by Gervase Phinn


As endearing as James Herriot, for Gervase Phinn, growing old is not about a leisurely walk to the pub for a game of dominoes or snoozing in his favourite armchair. As this sparkling collection of his very best humorous writing shows, he is not over the hill. Brimming with nostalgia, gently mocking life’s absurdities like ‘Please leave heather for all to enjoy on the Peak District’ or ‘Bargain basement upstairs’ at a Harrogate shop - he is here at his wittiest, twinkly-eyed best. 271pp in paperback with cartoons. £7.99 NOW £4


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69915 LOST HANCOCK SCRIPTS by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson


In the 1950s Hancock’s Half Hour blazed a trail for today’s comedy performers, but many of the shows no longer exist because the tapes were re-used. In this unmissable volume, introduced by Matt Lucas and David Walliams, the writers


Galton and Simpson have re-created ten lost scripts from memory. Hancock’s success was partly down to legendary supporting actors such as Kenneth Williams and Sid James, and their distinctive voices come across loud and clear in “The Election”, where the two major political parties have equal numbers of seats and absolute power is held by the Independent member for Shepherds Bush Green North, Mr Anthony Hancock. Old Etonian MP Kenneth Williams is a Hampstead Socialist who battles for Hancock’s loyalty against the working-class Conservative Sid James. In “The Drama Teacher” the legendary British film star Jack Hawkins makes a celebrity appearance as a student in Sid and Tony’s drama school Shakespeare class. Other classics include “The Great Detective”, “East Cheam Repertory Company” and “The Italian Maid”. 240pp, b/w stills. £16.99 NOW £6


LITERATURE


Literature is recognizable through its capacity to evoke more than it says.


- Anthony Burgess


70723 WORKING THE ROOM: Essays by Geoff Dyer


Alive with insight, delight and Dyer’s characteristic reverence, the book offers a guide around the cultural maze, mapping a route through the world of literature, art, photography and music. Irresistibly funny as a storyteller, he is adept at fiction, essay and reportage, twisting all three into something entirely his own. His writing is acute and bad tempered in the great British tradition. Across ten years’ work of essays, the volume spans the photography of Martin Parr and the paintings of Turner, the writing of Scott Fitzgerald and the criticism of Susan Sontag and includes extensive personal pieces - ‘On Being an Only Child’, ‘Fact’ and ‘Readers Block’ among them. The book features D. H. Lawrence, sex and hotels, Rodin, the Olympics, John Cheever, memory, and much of the human condition. He is a witty and concise observer. 400 delightful pages with ten pages of colour photos. £20 NOW £6


68851 THE WEALTH OF


NATIONS by Adam Smith Adam Smith (1723-1790) was one of the brightest stars of the 18th century Scottish Enlightenment. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was his most important book. First published in London in March 1776, it had been eagerly anticipated by Smith’s contemporaries and became an immediate bestseller. That edition sold out quickly and others followed.


Today, Smith’s Wealth of Nations rightfully claims a place in the Western intellectual canon. It is the first book of modern political economy, and still provides the foundation for the study of that discipline. But it is much more than that. Along with important discussions of economics and political theory, Smith mixed plain common sense with large measures of history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and much else. Few texts remind us so clearly that the Enlightenment was very much a lived experience, a concern with improving the human condition in practical ways for real people. A masterpiece by any measure, Wealth of Nations remains a classic of world literature to be usefully enjoyed by readers today. Please note the cover of the first edition states, incorrectly, that this is an abridged edition. In fact the text is complete, and the cover will be corrected on the next reprint. 974 page paperback. New from Wordsworth. ONLY £4


69298 GREAT HORSE STORIES


compiled by James Daley The collection opens with an abridgement of Anna Sewell’s classic Black Beauty, the moving account of a horse’s working life pulling cabs in Victorian London. Other stories include Her First Horse Show by David Gray, The Brogue by Saki, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s The Doctor’s Horse, Carved in Sand


by Erle Stanley Gardner, The Adventure of Silver Blaze by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Maltese Cat by Rudyard Kipling among the 15 chosen stories. For ages 10 and up here are tales of wild and tame horses offering a thrilling blend of adventure and realism. 232pp in paperback.


£6.99 NOW £3 70400 THE BOX: Tales from


the Darkroom by Gunter Grass


In an audacious literary experiment, Grass writes using the voices of his eight children as they record memories of their childhoods, of growing up and especially of their father, who was always at work on a new book. Their memories are at the same time loving and accusatory, happy and contradictory


and, pieced together, they form an intimate picture of this most public of men. Here too is Marie, a photographer and friend of many years, perhaps even a lover, whose snapshots - taken with an old-fashioned box camera, the box of the title - provide the author with ideas for his work. The photos not only depict a past, they imagine a future, tell what might have been, and grant the wishes of those who are being photographed. The children speculate on the nature of this magic. Was


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the enchanted camera a source of inspiration for their father? Did it represent the power of art itself? Was it the eye of God? Translated from the German by Krishna Winston. A daring 194 pages. $23 NOW £5


69347 JOHN KEATS: A Poet and His


Manuscripts by Stephen Hebron In his brief but exceptionally creative life, the English Romantic poet John Keats published just three volumes. Amongst the most revealing of literary documents his surviving manuscripts include original drafts of such celebrated poems as Ode To A Nightingale, Hyperion and The Eve of St Agnes as well as hundreds of marvellous letters in which Keats combined gossip and humour with profound literary and philosophical speculation. Mostly shown here in their entirety, many at actual size, Keats’ original manuscripts provide a unique visual record of his creative processes and rapid literary progress. The accompanying commentary by the author explores each manuscript in detail. 165 large pages, 90 colour images. £25 NOW £7


69370 SPANISH BOW by Andromeda Romano-Lax


When Feliu Delargo is born, late 19th century Spain is a nation slipping from international power and struggling with its own fractured identity. Feliu’s troubled childhood and rise to fame, including a musical apprenticeship in anarchist Barcelona lead him into a thorny partnership with the piano prodigy Justo Al-Cerraz. The divergent artistic goals and political affiliations of the two musicians threaten to divide them as Spain plunges into Civil War. But, as Civil War turns to World War, their shared love for their trio colleague, an Italian violinist named Aviva, forces them into their final and most dangerous collaboration. 554 paperback pages. £12 NOW £2


69416 MODERN NOVEL WRITING: Or The


Elegant Enthusiast by William Beckford First published in 1796 under the pseudonym Lady Harriet Marlow, this volume is a satirical attack on what its author perceived as characteristically feminine novel- writing. However, it is also a political satire, attacking the Tory party and its leader, William Pitt the Younger, for the war with France, repressive legislation and neglect of the poor. This is the first scholarly edition to be published and it includes a comprehensive introduction and notes. Edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Gemmett. 192 paperback pages. £14.99 NOW £3


69493 LOVE FROM NANCY: The Letters of


Nancy Mitford edited by Charlotte Mosley One of the great letter-writers of the 20th century, Nancy Mitford wrote with vitality, irreverence and a delicious bitchiness, claiming that publication of any letter of hers would trigger “a major libel suit as well as one or two suicides”. One of the six daughters of Lord Redesdale and moving in the feverish high society of the 30s, she had to cope with the affairs of her playboy husband Peter Rodd and the Fascism of her sisters Unity and Diana. After the war Nancy had a huge success with the novel The Pursuit of Love. In the 50s she moved in the world of the arts, including in her circle Alexander Korda, Enid Bagnold and Graham Sutherland. 624pp, paperback, photos. £9.99 NOW £5


70653 FRANK BELLAMY’S ROBIN HOOD


Robin Hood became a worldwide folk hero following the success of the Errol Flynn film in 1936, and Frank Bellamy’s graphic version for the 1956 Swift comic is now regarded as a classic, paving the way for later versions such as the BBC series and the Kevin Costner film. Robin Hood appears as a historical figure in 14th century


literature and legal records, though whether any of these records relate to the figure of myth and legend is uncertain. Bellamy’s version places Robin in the 13th century, a victim of Prince John’s war on the Barons while Richard the Lionheart is away on Crusade. When Robin’s father the Earl of Huntingdon is killed, Robin flees to Sherwood Forest where he meets traditional characters such as Friar Tuck, Guy of Gisborne and the Sheriff of Nottingham. In keeping with the strait-laced Fifties, Maid Marian shares a tent with her friend Gwen. The lively frames and compressed narration are superb examples of storytelling before the advent of computerised graphics.


Historical introduction, full-page black and


white cartoon strips. 144pp, softback. £14.99 NOW £6


70655 FRANK BELLAMY’S KING ARTHUR The origin of the King Arthur legend is hotly disputed by boffins, but we can be sure that many of the stories we know today were shaped if not invented by the 12th century French writer Chretien de Troyes, followed by Malory’s Renaissance version and Tennyson’s Victorian epic. Frank Bellamy’s cartoon strip for Swift comic in 1955 confirmed his pre- eminence among graphic storytellers with their fast action, vivid cameos and striking visual angles. The prose narration beneath each frame was created by Clifford Makins and is a perfect complement to Bellamy’s dynamic style. Focusing on the estrangement between Arthur and Lancelot, the strip presents Lancelot as the victim of a plot by the evil Mordred. The scene shifts to France where a series of cliffhanging episodes leaves the reader wondering whether Arthur and Lancelot will finally confront each other in combat and what the outcome will be. The innovative storytelling and graphics mark this strip out as a classic which can now be enjoyed by a new generation. Historical introduction, black and white cartoon strips including both King Arthur and Bellamy’s earlier Swiss Family Robinson.


116pp, softback. £14.99 NOW £6


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