Amusing Non-Fiction

[bychoiceornot]

I'm not quite sure what has sparked it, but I've found recently my preference for non-fiction over fiction books has grown quite significantly! Does anyone have any recommendations for any interesting/amusing/entertaining non-fiction I could look into?

I'm especially fond of Bill Bryson, Charlie Connelly etc., the travel writer with a wry turn of phrase sort of genre.

There are two not-quite-recent books on Australian history which are both informative and very entertaining. Girt and More Girt. Author escapes though.

I've recently read a couple of books by a bloke called Peter Allison (I think?). The first is called "Whatever you do, don't run". Allison is an African Safari guide, and the books are about his experiences. Fun reading.

Brilliant, both sound exactly my type of read, am off to seek them out now. Many thanks!

I was just thinking last night I must re-read The Innocent Anthropologist by Nigel Barley. Old but classic, witty and funny and warm.

If you fancy an autobiography I'd highly recommend Paul O Grady's. Heart warming and hilarious.

The Tent, the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy
Stargazing by Peter Hill
Driving Over Lemons series by Chris Stewart
Island Wife by Judy Fairbairns
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Dear Lupin by Roger Mortimer

Oh, and Moab is My Washpot by Stephen Fry

Sorry!
Just thought of Sea Legs by Guy Grieve and Chris Packhams Fingers in the Sparkle Jar

Nancy Mitford's biogs of Louis XIV (Sun KIng) and Madame de Pompadour. Make you snort tea and are incredibly accurate historically, full of unforgettable historical titbits.

Bonk! The science of sex

Watching the English, anthropological observation of the English

Tony Hawks - Round Ireland with a fridge is funny (and he's written a couple,of others subsequently)

French children don't throw food is funny,

I second The Tent, the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy. Made me cringe and genuinely LOL for the first time when reading a book in years.
Brutally honest and very funny.

Both Mel Giedroyc’s books From Here To Maternity, and Going GaGa

Gervase Phinn - a school inspector from Yorkshire (very gentle, v amusing)

If you like Gervase Phinn, then you may also enjoy Mike Pannett's books about policing in North Yorkshire - the series starts with 'Now then, lad...'

In a similar vein, I recommend 'You Can't Park There - the Highs and Lows of an Air Ambulance Doctor' by Tony Bleetman. Not played completely for laughs, given the subject matter, but has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

Wow, thank you all for the recommendations, I'm very excited to get reading!

I like Tim Moore's travel books. Frost in my Moustache and Continental Drifter are good ones to start.

They were written some years ago but I loved them - the autobiographies by Dirk Bogarde. The first one is A Postillion Struck by Lightning.

A Short Walk in the Hind Kush by Eric Newby. The whole premise is absurd. He packs in his job, in the 1950s, as a fashion buyer, and after a weekend trying out some climbing in Wales heads off, with a friend, driving across Europe and Asia, to the Nuristan Mountains in Afghanistan. It's not comic as such but grumpily absured, the whole exercise. Very English and understated.

Also by Eric Newby and very amusing 'Something Wholesale', his account of working for his father's specialist outsize women's clothes company in the 1940s.

Love round Ireland with a fridge. May have to add some of these to my reading list.

Made me remember A Travelling Cat. Journey round Britain with Pugwash. Read years ago.