The funniest book you've ever read

[Thomcat]

We're choosing a comedy book in the next book club Igo to. I have to say I've never read a funny book, well not that I can think of.
What's the funniest book you've ever read?

what kind of people are they? I really enjoyed I don't Know How She Does it..by Allison Pearson, if there are lots of mums. also really enjoyed the Michael Crick book re: Jeffrey Archer, laughed out loud on the tube several times

It's a book club of about 10 young mums really.

We all take a selecti0on of nbook suggestions from a different category (next one comedy) and then we vote on which one we want to read.

(prevents another tragic reading of anything like 'PS I Love You'!

someone O'Farrell (bloke)... help me out someone. The book's about him living a double life, as a married man and as a single man. Bottoms. Will check the bookcase, but think I lent it out.

Nick Hornby High Fidelity
Bill Bryon Notes from a Small Island
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Just Wiliam

I found parts of Lucky Jim (Kingsley Amis) incredibly funny, but the misogyny is not so amusing...

oh yes re crick. one incredulous snigger after another.

diary of a nobody?

david lodge sometimes makes me laugh out loud.

Just William! Genius! Thomcat, you HAVE to have Just William.

Just William, as in the kids programme from when we were kids? No.......surely not.
Off to google it.

this is definitely one of the funniest books I've ever read

You do mean the Just william I thought you meant
Really, are you serious, shall I put that forward as a suggestion?

Bakedpotato, that sounds great actually

Dead Famous by Ben Elton is v funny - written in 2002 after I think the second Big Brother - it's a kind of spoof of BB, so timely, since all us BB addicts are about to get glued to our screens again tomorrow.

I love Maureen Lipman's books - very funny.

Anything by Evelyn Waugh...v satirical

John O'Farrell The Best A Man Can Get Wet myself laughing so many times.

Just William still reduces me to helpless laughter at 35. I read ALL of them when I was 11 and I used to get told off in the library for constantly erupting into snorts of laughter. I dunno (lapses into Outlaw speak), you could try one and see? They're all short stories.

Yes, Thomcat I was!
Just William is hysterically funny and Richmal Crompton shows a shrewd understanding of the little boy's mindset. Admittedly the social milieu is dated but the situations and the antics are timeless. Ds loves them too.
The TV series made way too much of the vile Violet Elizabeth Bott IMO, the books are quite different.
Having said that, bakedpotato's suggestion looks good. As she is my intermittent spooky Mumsnet Twin I feel I have to investigate - oh and also suggest the sublimely rude and tasteless William Sutcliffe, Are You Experienced!

Puckoon by Spike Milligan is by far the funniest book I've ever read - and you can read it again and again and get new jokes you missed before.

It's also the only book I've successfully read aloud all the way through to my entire family without anyone getting bored.

Our book group have just read Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks and that really was laugh out loud funny

Clive James' 'Unreliable Memoirs' is very very funny (and an autobiography, so you learn a bit about growing up in Oz in the 40s and coming to swinging London in the 60s), also any of the discworld Terry Pratchett books (especially early ones - 'The Colour of Magic' and 'Mort', although they are not everyone's cup of tea). I also recently read Dave Gorman's 'Googlewhack Adventure' (he's a stand-up comedian/journalist), which I wasn't expecting to enjoy, but which I really really did - very amusing.

It's a tie between 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' by David Eggers and 'Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt.

'The Snapper' or 'The Van' by Roddy Doyle.

Agree with Marina 'Are You Experienced?' is very funny. Also a book called 'Starter for Ten' - hmm can't quite remember the author, anyone know?

Funny autobiographies: 'Unreliable Memoirs' by Clive James and 'The Moon's a Balloon' by David Niven.

I had no idea I was in such good company re Just William. I LOVE Just William and still read him now and again - sort of cleanses the palate iyswim

I loved the Just William books
What age do you reckon boys are ready for it?

I second Clive James too, he is hilarious.