Books to lift your lockdown

I’m a book reviewer with a good few years of reviews under my belt. However, there are several adjectives that appear in book blurbs that – to be totally honest- make me run for the hills. If it’s ‘heartbreaking’ or ‘poignant’ then it probably won’t make my TBR list. I have also learnt that ‘life-affirming’ usually means miserable – another one I tend to avoid!

On the other hand, ‘hilarious’ and ‘funny’ and ‘witty’ and ‘charming’ always make my list. And following on from yesterday’s post about the joyous ‘The Miseducation of Evie Epworth’ by Matson Taylor, it seemed a timely opportunity to introduce some of my comic favourites.

As lockdown is stuttering to an end for lots of people, here are some cheery writers and books that have brightened my life during tricky times. Some old, some new, but all funny.

1. P.G Wodehouse – the ultimate comfort read for me is a Jeeves and Wooster book. Yes, they’re set in an unrealistic upper-class British bubble that never really existed apart from in Wodehouse’s imagination, but Bertie Wooster’s scrapes (from which he is saved by his ever-faithful valet, Jeeves) never fail to amuse. Told in Bertie’s distinctive voice, he is the ultimate in an endearing but hapless narrator. You can start pretty much anywhere in the series – there are novels and short stories and all can be read as stand-alone books. I know there’s a contingent who prefer Wodehouse’s Blandings series, but my heart is forever Bertie’s. The TV series featuring Fry and Laurie is also fabulous.

2. ‘Jeeves and the King of Clubs’ by Ben Schott – if you’ve exhausted Wodehouse’s original Jeeves and Wooster books, then this 2018 novel is worth a look. Bertie’s narrative voice is pretty pitch perfect and it’s a lovely addition to the series for Wodehouse aficionados, plus is endorsed by the Wodehouse Estate.

3. Alan Bradley – another charming and witty narrator is 11 year-old Flavia de Luce, amateur investigator of murders in the quaint village of Bishop’s Lacey (an area – a bit like Midsomer – where the number of people meeting sticky ends is worryingly high!) The cosy crime series, set in the 1950s, starts with ‘The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie’ – which is absolutely where you should start too – and now runs to ten books.

4. ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4’ by Sue Townsend – I don’t need to tell you that the Adrian Mole books are funny, but if you haven’t recently revisited Adrian in 1980s Leicester then please do. Later books in the series became more – aagh – poignant, but the first is still perfect.

5. Nina Stibbe – after the success of the non-fiction ‘Love, Nina’ came the series of novels featuring another charming, young, Leicester-based narrator, Lizzie Vogel. The series starts with ‘Man at the Helm’, then ‘Paradise Lodge’ and ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ (the latter winning the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction in 2019) – very funny and definitely worth a read.

6. ‘A Curious Beginning’ by Deanna Raybourn – I love a crime series with a feisty female lead. If she’s wearing a crinoline and hanging around in the 1880s, then even better! This is the first in the series featuring Veronica Speedwell, a highly unconventional and sharp-witted Victorian adventurer. Not a series for those wedded to forensic levels of historical accuracy, but for a fast-paced and humorous mystery then this is worth a look.

7. India Knight – for fans of domestic comedy, journalist India Knight’s novels featuring Clara Hutt are laugh-out-loud in places. ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ is the best of the series and will appeal to fans of Gil Sims’ ‘Why Mummy Drinks’ series.

8. Helen Fielding – ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’ is a classic, but ‘Cause Celeb’ and ‘Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination’ are also good and much less well-known.

9. Graeme Simsion – the series featuring Don Tillman, starting with ‘The Rosie Project’ is warm, funny and so very sweet.

10. Terry Pratchett – loads of people I’ve talked to about Terry Pratchett have dismissed him because they don’t like fantasy as a genre. Nor do I really, but Pratchett’s ability to take everyday observations and turn them into something really funny and insightful in his Discworld series is amazing. Personally, I’d steer clear of the ones about the Watch and Rincewind (though they have their own merits) and go instead for the Witches (for example, ‘Equal Rites’) or Death (start with ‘Mort’). Equally funny are the ones that take a piece of real history and make it gloriously Discworld-esque – ‘The Truth’ (the invention of the printing press) and ‘Unseen Academicals’ (the development of football) are two glorious examples.

11. Caitlin Moran – whether she is writing fiction (as in the Dolly Wilde series starting with ‘How to Build a Girl’), non-fiction/journalism (‘Moranifesto’) or sitcom (‘Raised by Wolves’), I really love Moran’s down-to-earth and often hilarious take on a huge range of issues. She doesn’t shy away from some really tough stuff, but her writing is always a joy to read.

12. ‘New Boy’ by William Sutcliffe – a very funny coming-of-age novel about a young man navigating his final years of school. Sutcliffe’s YA novel ‘The Gifted, The Talented and Me’ is also good and in a similar vein (though slightly toned-down for a younger audience).

13. ‘Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders’ by Gyles Brandreth – if you’re looking for a light mystery with plenty of wit, you can definitely do worse than Brandreth’s novels which turn Oscar Wilde into a detective. Yes, they’re kind of daft but they’re also an affectionate homage to Wilde and very enjoyable.

14. ‘I Capture the Castle’ by Dodie Smith – one of my favourite books ever and one I’ll come back to on the blog. With another charming narrator navigating an eccentric family (this seems to be a theme of my list), this is just lovely and warm and humorous.

15. Adam Kay – the bestselling ‘This is Going to Hurt’ probably needs no introduction, but I couldn’t write a list of funny books without including it. Although it is at times sad and worrying about the pressures NHS doctors are under, this is one of a very small number of books that made me laugh out loud again and again. ‘Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas’ is also great, but very short.

A long post, but I really hope you can find something new and funny in here to lift your lockdown. I’m always keen to hear recommendations too, so please do let me know about your own comic favourites.