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"In travelling from Massachusetts to the Carolinas one passed through communities of such distinct individuality that they were almost like different nations," writes author Sidney George Fisher in his preface to Men, Women & Manners in Colonial Times, in which he presented the history and culture of colonial America to his Gilded Age contemporaries, who he felt had lost an appreciation of the fascinating circumstances that created the Founding Fathers and the Revolution. In the almost two hundr...

Life is much too short to give any real amount of f*cks. Who is this book for?People who give too many f*cks to things they shouldn’t give a f*ck about. You have a finite amount of f*cks, spend them wisely.This book contains the word f*ck over 44 thousand times, which is a world record**Probably, I don’t give a f*ck if that’s true or not and I couldn’t be f*cked to count them.

Jilly Cooper challenges the assumption that England nowadays is a classless society, and sets out to show how snobbery is alive and well and at home in the English mind. She chronicles the social attitudes and lifestyles of Harry Stow-Crat and his peers, Mr and Mrs Nouveau-Richards, and Jen Teale and her husband Bryan, and makes characteristically wry observations on the courtship behaviour, choice of furnishings, appetites and ambitions of the "merry-tocracy", the "telly-stocracy", and many oth...

While Ireland (like much of the rest of the world) was in lockdown in Spring and Summer 2020, we scratched our heads and wondered what to do to help lift people's spirits. We decided to join forces with Irish Pensions & Finance and run a competition celebrating Irish people's love of a good story - and a good laugh. There were only two requirements: make it funny, and make it (fairly) short. We were overwhelmed by the response: we received hundreds of entries, from all over the island and points...

In THE AUDACITY OF HYPE, Armando Iannucci cuts straight to the heart of the insanity and sherbet-headed nonsense of modern life. THE AUDACITY OF HYPE brings together his views on diverse subjects, ranging from wickedly funny pen portraits of the sometimes loveable, usually despicable chumps who like to think of themselves as our political elite, and their bonkers schemes to save the world that are in fact likely to do us more harm than a pile of witches, to WMD, disaster movies, the pitfalls of...

In Giving Out Yards, Tara Flynn puts paid to the long-debated question of what makes us Irish, nailing it in one collective and hilarious grumble-fest. Her razor-sharp wit and keen analysis of those topics that bring us out in a rash - and running to the phone/laptop/neighbour for a healthy dose of spleen-venting - leaves no moan unturned.Strictly non-solutions-based (if we found those, what on earth would we give out about?), here you'll find plenty of advice on how best to milk your grievances...

There's an epidemic sweeping the nation Symptoms include: *Acute embarrassment at the mere notion of 'making a fuss' *Extreme awkwardness when faced with any social greeting beyond a brisk handshake *An unhealthy preoccupation with meteorology Doctors have also reported several cases of unnecessary apologising, an obsessive interest in correct queuing etiquette and dramatic sighing in the presence of loud teenagers on public transport. If you have experienced any of these symptoms, you may be su...

From the bestselling author of Death and Croissants and Death and Fromage comes a murder mystery perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Janice Hallett or Richard Coles. Richard Ainsworth's French B&B has been taken over by a production company shooting a historical film at the Château de Valençay. But everything grinds to a halt with the sudden passing of an actor under suspicious circumstances. To get to the bottom of things, Valérie d'Orçay and Richard offer catering services to the hastily resu...

The redneck lifestyle is exposed through the hilariously antithetical filter of formal Japanese haiku in this collection of original verses. Each of the over 100 wickedly funny poems contains just three lines and 17 syllables, yet together they address the whole spectrum of redneck culture, including RVs, Wal-Mart, beer, Pop-Tarts, pickups, monster trucks, NASCAR, boats, trailers, trailer parks, barns, hunting, shotguns, dogs, Las Vegas, and the lottery.

Beppe Severgnini chronicles the experiences he and his wife had while renting a house in Georgetown and attempting to adapt to modern American culture.

With Stuff Parisians Like, Olivier Magny shared his hilarious insights into the fervently held opinions of his fellow Parisians. Now he moves beyond the City of Light to skewer the many idiosyncrasies that make modern France so very unique. In France, the simple act of eating bread is an exercise in creative problem solving and attempting to spell requires a degree of masochism. But that's just how the French like it-and in WTF, Olivier Magny reveals the France only the French know. From the l...