Please can you help me find some gentle, very English/UK humour for my elderly dad?

[BSJohnson]

He loved "Travels with Boogie", which I gave him after seeing a recommendation on here, and also "Secrets of a bookseller". He also enjoyed Bill Bryson's books two England books, and "A walk in the woods". I also know he read and enjoyed "three men in a boat" years ago.

He doesn't usually read fiction, but I get the impression he likes gentle, English humour, but clever, not twee. He's sharp as a tack, and grasps contemporary references and modern culture, but doesn't not partake of them! Has anyone got any bright ideas, please?

Scottish, rather than English but Monarch of the Glen by Compton McKenzie is a wonderful farce.

Another vote here for the A J Wentworth books. And also Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh.

And another vote for Leonard and Hungry Paul.

Definitely 'My Family and Other Animals', and all the others. I read some of that to a friend once on holiday and she was literally crying with laughter.

I would say the Hitchhikers trilogy of five too, to be honest, although he might not dig it if he doesn't like fantasy.

I must say that I found all the Anne of Green Gables books very funny. Obviously they are Canadian not English but there's a lot of crossover, especially in the books about the war as they track all the major Canadian battles in France. I think it's doing them a disservice to say they are only for children and/or girls.

A lot of Dickens is funny - Martin Chuzzlewhit comes to mind. And what about new things like 'This is going to hurt'? I pissed myself so many times reading that.

Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast - I enjoyed this as an audio book.

Alexander Mccall Smith
the heartbeat tv series books
Rachel Joyces Harold Fry book (she may have done others)
Jonas Jonnason & Fredrick Backman (not British authors I don't think but very good)
David Nicholls I am not sure of but other love

Am seconding David Lodge too. And Middle England by Jonathon Coe. Particularly if he will enjoy contemporary references.

Whilst Waugh is very funny I wouldn’t describe him as having a “gentle” sense of humour.

I think he would enjoy Middlemarch, which is both very English and very funny, and Trollope though obviously not recent! Again, a light read but all the quirkiness of human nature is there & obviously beautifully written.

I’m a huuuuge Kate Atkinson fan too but she does veer into darker territory sometimes. There were some short stories years which were very good but not an easy read. I think each story had within it the death of a child iirc.

amp.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/16/great-gags-hope-and-happy-endings-books-to-cheer-everyone-up?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true

This may have already been added to the thread but just in case!

Also, if he's into golden-age crime type novels, there's a great (and lengthy) series set in 1920s Scotland featuring a heroine/lady detective called Dandy Gilver that I really enjoy. It's gentle but sort of darkly comic, and very well researched.