For some a moving and eye-opening story, for others, absolute nonsense. The quest by one author (and amateur artist) to answer a simple question, does his hometown suck.This sometimes witty, always engaging and to be fair occasionally, irritating journey documents one man's quest to understand the town that he calls home. Why is it hated by outsiders? How come so many rank it in the top ten of Ireland's worst places to live? Why would anyone care?A rarely emotional and alway...

As seen on This Time with Alan Partridge on BBC One.THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERPraise for Nomad:'Funniest book of the year' Sunday Telegraph'Alan Partridge's Nomad is almost certainly the funniest book ever written' Caitlin Moran'Sensationally funny. What brilliant writing' Richard Osman'Sensational' Jenny Colgan'Hilarious' Jon Ronson'Brilliantly...

Brace yourself for Frankie’s novel, he’s more outspoken and brilliantly inappropriate than ever.There are fears that this year could see the start of a double-dip recession, or worse still a double-dip-with-misery-sprinkles and f**k-where’s-my-job?-sauce. Why not chuckle into the howling void as taloned fingers reach up to consume you with Frankie Boyle’s book, Work! Consume! Die!In Work! Consume! Die! stand-up comedy's favourite pessimist, Frankie Boyle, offers his outrage...

Joanna Nadin's first novel for adults, The Queen of Bloody Everything, is about mothers, daughters and how we can make many choices in life but can't choose where we come from.As Edie Jones lies in a bed on the fourteenth floor of a Cambridge hospital, her adult daughter Dido tells their story, starting with the day that changed everything.That was the day Dido – aged exactly six years and twenty-seven days old – met the next door neighbours and fe...

From bogan to boned and beyond -- a full-frontal 'femoir' by one of Australia's best-loved journalistsFrom bogan to boned and beyond – a full-frontal femoirTracey Spicer was always the good girl. Inspired by Jana Wendt, this bogan from the Brisbane backwaters waded through the 'cruel and shallow money trench' of television to land a dream role: national news anchor for a commercial network.But the journalist found that, for women, TV was less about n...

The Gospel According to Blindboy is a surreal and genre-defying collection of short stories and visual art exploring the myths, complacencies and contradictions at the heart of modern Ireland. Covering themes ranging from love and death to sex and politics, there's a story about a girl from Tipp being kicked out of ISIS, a van powered by Cork people's accents and a man who drags a fridge on his back through Limerick.Whip-smart, provocative and animated by the author's unmi...

Polite, pensive, mature, reserved ...Charlie Brooker is none of these things and less. Picking up where his hilarious Screen Burn left off, Dawn of the Dumb collects the best of Charlie Brooker's recent TV writing, together with uproarious spleen-venting diatribes on a range of non-televisual subjects - tackling everything from David Cameron to human hair.Rude, unhinged, outrageous, and above all funny, Dawn of the Dumb is essential reading for anyone wit...

The jaw-dropping and joyful story of a life like no other - from one of Britain's best loved writers and actors'Funny, sad, totally no-holds-barred' The Scotsman'No life can really be all black, right? Even during the darkest times, what got me through that bleakness was laughter and time. With enough of both of these things I reckon you could get over just about anything.'Nick Frost burst onto our screens in a blaze of camo fatigues and weaponry a...

In his debut collection of short stories, Robert Sheehan disappears into characters, challenging the complacencies of everyday experience, often from entirely unexpected angles. Informed by the author's peripatetic life, Disappearing Act reflects on the absurdity of human behaviour. Sheehan delves deep into his characters' streams of self-talk and self-imposed delusions, exploring the dark impulses that lurk below the shiny surfaces of many outwardly normal lives. Dark and provocative, the...

Featuring:Sarah Hall, Lucy Wood, Lisa Blower, Lavinia Greenlaw and Lionel Shriver.Edgar Allan Poe once claimed the greatest literary works were those that could be read ’in one sitting’. ‘Brevity must be in direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect,’ he argued, once the effect has been established, of course.The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 all use brevity with striking results, whether presenting a comp...

THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES:Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skillsIn this volume of the Good Audition Guides, you'll find fifty fantastic speeches for men, all written since the year 2000, by some of our most exciting dramatic voices.Playwrights featured in Contemporary Monologues for Men include Howard Brenton, Jez Butterworth, Alexi Kaye Campbell, Caryl Churchill, Ariel Dorfman...

A stirring, bold and moving anthology of stories and poetry by top LGBTQ+ YA authors and new talent, giving their unique responses to the broad theme of pride. Each story has an illustration by an artist identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community. Compiled by Juno Dawson, author of THIS BOOK IS GAY and CLEAN. A celebration of LGBTQ+ talent, PROUD is a thought-provoking, funny, emotional read. Contributors: Steve Antony, Dean Atta, Kate Alizadeh, Fox Benwell, Alex Bertie, Caroline Bird, Fa...