Help - need distracting from nasty anniversary. Funny books please

There's another whole thread on this, but I recommend Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans.

Agree with Florence King, Nancy Mitford, Bill Bryson as pp have suggested.

My favourite comfort reads are Pride and Prejudice, and maybe odd choice but I find it very comforting - How to Eat by Nigella Lawson

How to Kill Your Family - you can imagine your ex as one of the victims!

(I sympathise, my ex was a cheating toilet goblin too and I found out on our wedding anniversary - so I genuinely feel your pain).

And if you've already bought too many books (although is that really a thing?! You can never have too many books!) then you can listen to it on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0b97jn0

Sending you strength and solidarity - things can and will get better. X

I find Jonathan Coe very funny. Also Kate Atkinsons Jackson Brodie books. I like the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. None of them are comic novelists, but they really make me laugh.

Oh I really loved that book!

Bob Mortimer’s autobiography is very funny. I also really enjoyed Brian Johnson’s (AC:DC)

Enjoy!

Lovely to 'meet' someone who's read anything of hers. 😘

@CrystalSingerFan I loved Confessions Of A Failed Southern Lady so will look this up, thanks! Her characters and dialogue were fantastic I know they were based on real life but you still have to have the ear and the knack to make such larger than life characters jump alive and seem real.

Nancy Mitford

The "Why Mummy Swears/Drinks/ a couple of others by Gill Sim.

Read the Andrew Mole books- always bring a smile to my face without fail!

I'm not keen on Maron Keyes and don't think she is remotely funny. I wish I did like her as she seems quite popular. Watch a funny film. I like Along came Poly and Private Bejamin.

Jane Austen and Dickens always cheer me up. They’ve survived so long for a reason. I tend to re-read favourite passages rather than the whole thing.

P. G. Wodehouse is a sublime comic poet. I’d also recommend listening to Stephen Fry read him on audiobook.

Douglas Adams is kind of Wodehouse in space (Adams worshipped Wodehouse and imitated his style).

Patrick Fermor is a very uplifting writer. A Time Of Gifts is my go-to read when I feel low.

Bill Bryson is a cheerful writer as well. I’d also recommend listening to Brian Blessed read his autobiography. Had me howling with laughter.

Evelyn Waugh is another favourite. He’s dark and nasty, but also very funny and a superb stylist. Weirdly, it is Waugh’s total lack of softness or pity that cheers me up. He’s an antidote to our shallow, mawkish sentimentality. There’s something bracing about him.

I often return to childhood favourites as well, especially the Narnia books and The Wind in the Willows.

Bella Mackie’s How to Kill Your Family was very funny - made me laugh out loud at points

Be careful with Marian Keyes - plenty of dark subjects tackled (in a funny way, but still)

Mhairi McFarlane - all of them
The Liar by Stephen Fry
Time for Bed by David Baddiel (some darkness but funny)

Emma Kennedy - The tent, the bucket and me.

Basically it's about all their failed camping trips when she was a child.

I purposely took it to hospital whilst having my mastectomy and laughed so much the nurses thought I was having a bizarre reaction to the cancer/surgery and meds that they discussed giving me a psychological evaluation. I honestly cried with laughter and it was just what I needed to get me through that tough time.

I always go back to it when I need a lift or an escape from the shit life often throws at you.

Even better if you can listen to Emma read it on Audible.

How to be Champion, Sarah Millican

"Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye" by Florence King

It's a bunch of essays by an American woman and they're brilliant. Mumsnet distrusts links so here's some Amazon text: "Florence King confirms her position as one of the wittiest social critics now writing-and certainly the most uninhibited. Nothing escapes her withering gaze, from our greatest national institution ("Democrazy"), to the cult of Helpism ("Does Your Child Taste Salty?"), to the rules of historical romance writing ("Sex and the Saxon Churl"). If caring 'n' compassion are getting you down, open this book for a refreshing whiff of vitriol."

Sex and the Saxon Churl is hysterical.

Unruly by David Mitchell is hilarious. Non fiction. About the Kings and Queens of England

Marian Keyes will be a feast for your eyes.
Read them all. They're fabulous

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde. Particularly if you like bookish references.

Diary of A Provincial Lady or The Diary of a Nobody. Both gentle, very funny books.

Nope. Nope.
Sorry OP, but I refuse to give you suggestions for funny books to distract yourself from a 'nasty' anniversary.

Instead celebrate, rejoice, be joyful that this horrible man gave you the gift of freedom from his duplicity. Please don't let what he did ruin your day for you.

My ex moved out on a similar sort of day ( it's been a long time since it happened, so much hindsite has accrued), and I love the poetry of him leaving when he did.

However, if you do want an engaging book, Celia Aherne is your girl 💐💐💐

Ben Aitken, start with the Gran Tour. Humour is so individual and not everyone laughs at the same things but I really enjoyed these.