Could anyone suggest some humorous books for elderly readers please?

Ruth Dudley Edwards writes humorous murder stories and has a good poke at various bits of the British establishment each time. Can be v v funny.

I love Persephone Books. I wish it were my shop! Dh bought me a stack of books from there for Christmas. I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but - they are so very pretty...

Second vote for Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - brilliant at any age, but set in the 20s (I think) so it was like listening to my grandmother!

Maureen Lipman, Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood have written good humoured books.

There's a wonderful little publisher called Persephone Books that reissues titles that have undeservedly gone out of print which would fit the bill brilliantly. Your elderly clients may well recognise having loved them in earlier years. I'm gradually reading my way through the list but my favorite so far is Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winifred Watson. I mentioned it to my Mum, who's 86 and she giggled straight away and recounted the story although she had read it over 50 years previously!

If they like "comfort murders", try the Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters?

Most of the older readers I know have similar reading tastes to me - they're not housebound but my American friend who lives in Canada in her mid 70s is a great fan of Christopher Brookmyre - I'm not sure that everyone in their 70s and 80s should be assumed to have the same tastes.

That said, there are some good suggestions here. More Nancy Mitford. Mary Wesley.

I review books for a site called www.thebookbag.co.uk - I'm in my early 40s but one of the site owners, Sue Magee, is in her 60s and reviews a lot of "women's fiction" and crime fiction.

Could you do a little questionnaire for any of your readers who are willing to fill in?

Some questions:

Books/authors you've loved recently
Any that you've hated
What would you recommend to friends/family/other service users?
How do you feel about sex/violence/cruelty to animals in your books?

Some of your readers might like some/all of those things in their reading. (Mary Wesley has quite a bit of sex in her books I think, and she was 70+ when she started writing).

what about Sue Townsends latest Adrian Mole ones? My DH likes the Flashman books (he's a 75 yr old trapped in the body of a 35 yr old )

Jasper Fforde

Me too, Esme!

How about The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield and Provincial Daughter by (the initials escape me) Dashwood? These are about daily middle-class life in (was it?) 1920s and for her daughter 1950s. They are both written in a wry amusing style.

M C Beaton, either Hamish MacBeth or Agatha Raisin books. Very funny, lighthearted murder mysteries. Or Miss Read's Caxley or Thrush Green books?

Lol, I love reading all these...38 going on 70, thats me!

I remember my mother being outraged by Niven and not finishing it as it was 'rude'. I think it has tales of visiting a prostitute.

david niven's the moon's a balloon is good

Richard Gordon's "Doctor at Sea" etc are funny and inoffensive (I know my elderly parents like them).

I second Deric Longden, his writing is fantastic.

I bought mil a book by Maeve Binchy - an autobiographical account of her hip replacement.

Mil raved about it - and that is a true compliment as mil would hate to admit I had scored a success with a present!

A Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine is also laugh out loud funny. My mum loved it.

I really enjoyed 'No! I don't want to join a book group' by Virginia Ironside and 'Reading In Bed' by Sue Gee, both with older characters but would appeal to a variety of age groups

I was going to suggest Mapp and Lucia but I've also just finished a book called Major Pettigrew's Last Stand where the hero is a retired major in his late 60s. It's very funny and my mum (who is in her late 70s) couldn't put it down. So that's a good one

I also do home library service to elderly readers. One wants me to choose not only large print but they must also be paperback. Narrows the choice somewhat!
My dad used to like David Nobbs and Tom Sharpe. The James Herriot books were quite readable gentle humour I think.

Tony Hawks maybe?

Bill Bryson

Bridge Jones Diary. I know it's supposed to be 'contemporary', but who are we kidding? People have been getting up to the same things for generations. As you get older, I've noticed, you start to lose you inhibitions and be honest about what ACTUALLY happened (or what you wanted to happen).

I recommended this book to my friends Granny for some holiday reading and she hasn't stopped going on about it.

It's light-hearted, written in an easy to read manner and also because it's diary entries - easier to remember.

What kind of books have they enjoyed before? I always find that's an important question to ask.

Nancy Mitford