Help me find a very very funny book

[lolbrador]

Hello

Feeling a bit down in the dumps, can anyone recommend any books that are very funny?

Can be fiction or non fiction.

I'm finding my current read about everyday life in dickens London very interesting but rather gloomy, I shall revisit once the January blues blow over.

Thanks in advance

I loved Catch 22.

You can see the angels bum Miss Worswick! Mike Harding. Is very funny and on a similar vein Gervase Phinn about his days as a teacher and an Ofsted inspector has some hilarious moments. I also had the pleasure of going to see Gervase Phinn twice and the lady next to me and I were in stitches while her husband (who didn't want to go ) sat po faced although eventually his faced cracked. She thanked me afterwards for sitting next to her( I suggested she swap seats with him) and laughing as loud as she was. We were streaming with tears of laughter.

Agree with lots of the above.

The one that literally (not figuratively) had me wetting myself (only a tiny bit and there were extenuating circumstances), laughing out loud and weeping with hilarity,* was "Hopscotch and Handbags" by Lucy Mangan.

*I brought it in an airport and was laughing so much that my husband and daughters moved to sit a bit away from me due to embarrassment.

Another vote for peter Kay this is going to hurt.

Diary of a Nobody
Augustus Carp, Esq by Himself (really really funny)
The Papers of A. J. Wentworth, B.A. is really very funny - especially the opening
Jeeves books
Blandings books
Mapp and Lucia books
I like Bill Bryson but I find I have to take him in small doses.

Parts of Anthony Trollope are very droll and thumping good yarns all of them
I cannot help but laugh aloud at the James Herriott books - especially the first two.

Oh and if you can find a copy Miss Marjoribanks by Mrs Oliphant is a delight (a white frock ... cut high)

Yes Man - Danny Wallace

Agree with Pink re Janet Evanovich

I'm going to save some of these then work through them.

I still love any of the Terry Pratchett books.

Marking place!

I second three men in a boat and the diary of a nobody, and particularly the early Jeeves books!

Another vote for Jeeves and Wooster and Cold Comfort Farm. Can I put in a vote for Nancy Mitford?

The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is properly 'laugh out loud on public transport' funny

Any David Sedaris
👌

Thank you for all of these suggestions. I'm off to the book shop on my lunch today to search some of them out.

Spike Milligan's books about his experiences in the war are funny. Hitler, My Part in his Downfall is one I recall, but there are a few more too.

Definitely read The Tent, the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy. I have never laughed out loud so much when reading.
Sadly I agree with Sewingbea about Adam Kay and his books. His attitude towards older women was appalling. I was so disappointed in him.

Nora Ephron’s Heartburn and Connie Willis’s To Say Nothing of the Dog (which is loosely based on Three Men in a Boat), are my favourite funny books.

I’m also fond of Georgette Heyer’s dialogue, she’s so often deliciously funny - The Talisman Ring is my favourite there.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. The funniest book I have ever read. And re-read.

The Bill Bryson travel books are properly laugh out loud funny.

@lolbrador how did you get on?

I’d seconf Good Omens, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and Three Men In A Boat. Adam Kay is funny but will not cheer you up.

New recommendation - hard to beat for pure unmitigated silliness are the “The Pirates In An Adventure With...” books by Gideon Defoe

David Lodge - Nice Work, Changing Places and Small World. Read them about 35 years ago now

Bill Bryson.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.

Yes, the Adrian Mole books, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. Bill Bryson. Jeeves is funny, but I found the stories a bit predictable after the first few. Used to like Spike Milligan's stuff when I was younger.

I was going to say Georgette Heyer, but someone beat me to it. Perfect light reading if you're feeling a bit down in the dumps, or not well.

Also Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St Mary's are very funny, but also sad at times - good people die.

Bill Bryson - big country is my favourite one.

I'd completely forgotten about Mil Millington! He had a fab website which made me laugh at my desk. I'd recommend that.

Janet Evanovitch, Jasper Fforde, Jodi Taylor.

Also, for pure silliness and great written banter, the RR Hayward Extracted series.

Where there’s a will... by John Mortimer.

There’s a brilliantly ironic bit about the govt of the day (1990s) trying to make al fresco sex illegal.

And another about petitioning for divorce in the 1930s when the judge had to decide on the monetary value of a forfeit wife, and how much the adulterous male had to pay in compensation. So aggrieved person who was secretly glad to be rid of duplicitous souse, would try to increase their compensation by claiming soon to be ex-spouse was great in bed or make perfect cake or could get perfect stripes when cutting the lawn. PMSL