This hilarious novel of a helicopter mom and dad is "a near-flawless caricature of 21st-century upper-middle-class parenthood" ( Publishers Weekly).Alice never imagined she would end up like this, so anxious after hearing about the dangers of meteorites that she makes her children wear bike helmets in the wading pool. Her husband, David, has taught their four-year-old to list every animal represented in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. But the more...

A doctor in America has just invented a 'sperm sorting machine'. At least that's what he claimed when his receptionist burst into the office to find him doing something peculiar with the Hoover attachment. Apparently the system used for separating the male and female sperm is remarkably simple. A sample is placed in the petri dish with a microscopic pile of household items on a tiny staircase. All the sperm that go straight past without picking anything up are obviously boys.John O...

Isn't it always the way? You wait ages for one purple flour-filled condom and then three come along at once. Of course the correct procedure for a chemical attack in the House of Commons would have been for MPs to remain in the chamber and remove all items of clothing.I'm not sure which is the more horrific vision; anthrax all over London or Nicholas Soames slipping out of his Y-fronts while chatting to a naked Ann Widdecombe.Here at last is the third col...

'This week the first pet passports came into effect. Around the country dogs have been hopping into photo booths and trying to look as relaxed as possible, which is not easy when you know you're not allowed on the chair.'Gathered here are the best of John O'Farrell's newspaper columns for the Guardian and the Independent which saw him win the coveted Best Columnist of the Year Award at the prestigious British Liars Awards. Among many other things, he claims that the only conviction...

Gyles Brandreth presents the quiz show with scandal on its mindHosted by the least discreet man in Britain, broadcaster and national treasure Gyles Brandreth, Whispers is the panel game that celebrates all things scurrilous and salacious. Running the gauntlet of gossip are two teams of two guests, who test their wits and wit as they try to tell the difference between fact, fiction and outlandish speculation.In the opening round, they are challenged...

Highlights from the light-hearted literary quiz chaired by James WaltonThe Write Stuff is the book-based panel show that takes a witty and whimsical look at well-known authors and their work. Host James Walton challenges the erudite contestants with tricky literary teasers, which they endeavour to answer using a combination of knowledge and guesswork.Each episode is themed around an ‘Author of the Week’, who is the subject of the introductory round...

Clive Anderson and guests poke fun at the past in this panel show with a yesteryear twistOriginally broadcast on Radio 4 in 2003-4, We’ve Been Here Before is the topical, satirical, historical panel game that aims to show beyond all doubt that there’s nothing new in the news. Hosted by award-winning comedian, broadcaster and Whose Line Is It Anyway? star Clive Anderson, it takes a wry, witty look at long-gone days through a present-day lens, as th...

The 1993 series that sees Brian Perkins and Kate Robbins 'looking back' at the decade that was yet to happenNewsreader and ‘Godfather of Radio 4’ Brian Perkins and Spitting Image impressionist Kate Robbins star in this Sony Award-winning satirical show, set on New Year’s Eve at the turn of the millennium. As the Nineties come to a close, they recall the tumultuous, earth-shattering events of the years 1994-1999.Join them as they revisit when the Ho...

All five series of the political satirical soap opera set in the strangely familiar village of Little Blighty - plus Christmas Specials'A comic microcosm of a country not a million miles away' Radio TimesLittle Blighty is an idyllic part of the world, with a church, a market, a small school and a pub, The Cock and Bull. Village life is pretty uneventful, though the humdrum happenings include social turmoil...

Brian Perkins and Kate Robbins ‘remember’ 21st Century years yet to happen in this futuristic 1994 comedy showFirst broadcast (with the aid of a crystal ball) in summer 1994, the Sony Award-winning show returns for a second series starring the ‘Godfather of Radio 4’, Brian Perkins, and Spitting Image impressionist Kate Robbins. This time, they turn their comic gaze on six roller-coaster years from the 21st Century: 2001, 2005, 2010, 2021, 2025 and 2099.

The world-wide, mega selling author of Man and Boy is back with a sizzling, Shanghai tale of sex, romance and second wivesHot shot young lawyer Bill Holden and his wife Becca move with their four year old daughter to the booming, gold-rush city of Shanghai, a place of enormous wealth and crushing poverty, where fortunes are made and foreign marriages come apart in spectacular fashion.Bill's law firm houses the Holden family in Paradise Mansions – a luxury apartment block wh...

PACKED WITH ASTONISHING FACTS AND WONDERFUL STORIES ON WHAT MAKES THE ENGLISH TICKQ. Why are English train seats so narrow?A. It's all the Romans' fault. The first Victorian trains were built to the same width as horse-drawn wagons; and they were designed to fit the ruts left in the roads by Roman chariots.This intriguing and witty book explains how our national characteristics - our sense of humour, hobbies and favourite foods - a...