Is David Nicholls' Starter for Ten a throwback? Many readers look back with nostalgia to a recent golden age of comic writing, when David Lodge, Malcolm Bradbury and Tom Sharpe were producing some achingly funny work, with brilliantly realised characters. But Nicholls' sharp-as-nails novel has all the comic acumen of his great predecessors (along with their frequently-utilised university campus milieu) and, like Lodge and co., Nicholls writes real characters, not just boobies suitable only for pratfalls and sexual embarrassment. So even though the situations may often be ridiculous, we're still engaged by the protagonists.

Here, they are university student Brian Jackson and aspiring actress Alice Harbinson. Brian has arrived at his place of learning with a stronger desire than the acquisition of knowledge: he's going to be a star of TV's hottest quiz. But his progress on"The Challenge" is somewhat stymied by his growing desire for the beguiling Alice, struggling to make her mark as an actress. And as obstacles impede their affair, Brian becomes more and more convinced that only overwhelming success on the quiz show will win her.

What makes this novel such a delight, apart from the strongly drawn characters (both major and minor) is the coruscating dialogue: Nicholls writes comic dialogue like a dream, and his targets are many and varied: the idiocies of love and sex, the ludicrous pursuit of meaningless TV celebrity, fat cat businessmen lining their pockets--you name it, and it's probably here; Starter for Ten is a panoply of modern Britain with all its glories and excesses writ large. Nicholls wrote the third series of the hit TV series Cold Feet , which is as good a demonstration of his credentials as one could wish for. But Starter for Ten is his best work; there are no false notes struck by miscast actors, just prose that has a comic energy not often encountered these days. -- Barry Forshaw

Michael McIntyre is Britain's biggest comedy star. This autobiography reavels his showbiz roots, his appalling attempts to attract the opposite sex, his fish-out-of-water move from public to state school and his astonishing journey from selling just one ticket at the Edinburgh Festival to selling half a million tickets on his last tour.

A joke book that includes over 230 monster-tickling jokes.

Mr Gum is a truly nasty old man. He's absolutely grimsters. But this book is not just about him. There is also a little girl called Polly, an evil butcher, heroes and sweets and stuff, and Jake the dog, who must be saved from terrible, terrible evil.

A compendium of popular misconceptions, misunderstandings and common mistakes culled from the BBC show, 'QI'.

A collection of insights and anecdotes, diary entries, poems, 'true' facts and cartoons on travel. It includes the author's reflections on life back in England, from Salford joy riders to what his girlfriend's mum and dad have for dinner on a Thursday.

Mr and Mrs Twit are extremely nasty, so the Muggle-Wump monkeys and the Roly-Poly bird hatch an ingenious plan to give them just the ghastly surprise they deserve.

What's funnier than underpants? Aliens in underpants, of course!

A comprehensive guide that draws from reams of historical data, laboratory experiments, field research, and eyewitness accounts.

George creates a very special medicine to cure his grandma of her nasty habits.

As seen on the BBC2 show, How I Met Your Mother, The Bro Code is the internal code of conduct for Bros - The Dangerous Book for Boys meets The Game

Cult author Karl Pilkington is a man who thinks owning 1,777 acres of the moon is a good idea, and believes that the human testicles should be relocated to the earlobes. Maybe he's right. Perhaps his brand of wisdom and insight is what the world has been waiting for? This book takes you on a voyage through his strange yet mesmerising mind.

Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren's nine-year-old heroine, burst onto the bookshelf in 1945 and has remained a firm favourite with children all over the world. Here her story is illustrated with flair and humour by Lauren Child, winner of both the Kate Greenaway Award and the Nestle Smarties Gold Award.

Will is a rich, child-free and irresponsible Londoner in his thirties who, in his search for available women, invents an imaginary son and starts attending single parent meetings. As a result of one of his liaisons he meets Marcus, a strange 12-year-old boy with problems at school. Gradually, Will and Marcus become friends.