To be effective, both the listener and the teller must have common references that give meaning to the joke. In this riotous joke book inspired by his fantastic books, kids will learn the perfect jokes to entertain everyone from teachers like Miss Trunchbull or annoying neighbors like The Twits. Take life less seriously, loosen up and enjoy the endless wordplay possibilities available in our English language with the use of this clever book.

It’s arranged like a regular thesaurus, from A to Z covering a wide range of topics including aging, alcoholism, etc. We recommend that these ideas are used as inspiration, that ideas are undertaken with appropriate adult supervision, and that each adult uses their own discretion and knowledge of their children to consider the safety and suitability. I had come to loath Bill Bryson, but on holiday a couple of years ago The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid was the only book around. While some other books contain the same tired one-liners we’ve been hearing all our lives, this one mixes it up with some direct quotes from modern comical brains. But when Emira, who's black, takes Alix's white toddler to the supermarket, she's accused of kidnapping and things start to spiral out of her control.

Delete At Your Peril is a very, very funny book, and a perfect present for anybody who has a) a sense of humour, and b) gets irritated by internet spammers and their tiresome scams. The tales about the tribulations and triumphs of life as a drag queen are sometimes shocking: Tom’s story of being attacked by a stranger is highly disturbing; his tales of trysts in a Portaloo and sexual experiences that saw them drinking out of toilets are amusing and heartfelt.

Themed spreads include jokes about everything from monsters to mice, and they’re some of the cutest we’ve seen. A good joke book is always a useful tool to have around whether it’s for easing the tension at your next in-law dinner party or entertaining little kids. Back in 2009, we asked some leading lights of comedy and literature to nominate the books that make them laugh out loud. With his perfect balance of lightness and control, the British novelist and poet Joe Dunthorne is certainly among the latter, as his 2018 novel about a couple trying to get on the property ladder during the 2011 London riots reminds us.At first glance, a novel about a teenager with Asperger's syndrome solving a Sherlock Holmes-style mystery about finding a neighbour’s dog dead on the lawn, impaled on a garden fork, doesn’t sound rich in comedy. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole might just be British fiction’s most authentic insight into the hilariously hubristic mind of a teenage boy.