A bit of fun

 
     In his comment on Friday's post, Dark Puss said he was reading The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss which he described as "great fun". As I said in reply, everyone needs a bit of light relief from time to time, and why not collect some fun books so that we have a list we can all refer to when we're in the mood for that sort of thing. I'm looking for enjoyable, entertaining, amusing books, perhaps whimsical or slightly silly ones, well-done, lighthearted ... you'll know what I mean.

   

    To start us off I'll nominate Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, "a hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas and one of the best-loved comic novels of all time" - I wrote a bit about it ages ago - and Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennys, a book which has a serious side but is tremendously cheering, and which you can read about here (and see my cover quote in full here).

    Now, please rack (or wrack) your brains and suggest a fun book or two.

Comments

[LauraC]

Definitely the Jeeves and Wooster books by P.G. Wodehouse. I'm looking forward to hear about others-everyone needs a little humor sometimes.

[Sue]

I would have nominated Henrietta if you hadn't. Oh, but there's another Henrietta Sees It Through. Two of the few books which make laugh out loud.

Startled to discover Dark Puss is a man! Must stop assuming that everyone who comments on a blog is female.

[Mary]

Thank you for the two recommendations...one I can get a the library, the other I can buy for my e-reader.

"Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Burns is a good read...about a Southern town at the turn of the century. Or for something different, "Frederica" by Georgette Heyer.

[GeraniumCat]

I was surprised by Jude Morgan's An Accomplished Woman recently, which I think was mentioned on Vulpes Libris - I think the reviewer said it was like Heyer without the exclamation points. It's a Regency romance but I thought it was very funny and did actually make me laugh out loud, which doesn't happen all that often. I'm going to read all his other romances in a binge, I suspect. Staying on a distinctly lowbrow path, I also like all of Victoria Clayton's books, especially Dance With Me - they are romantic novels for the Thinking Woman (or even the Thinking Cat, Dark Puss?)and ditto Elizabeth Pewsey's lovely, faintly scurrilous Mountjoy novels.

And, of course, all the prewar Angela Thirkell novels are delicious!

[Juxtabook]

Any of the Brenda and Effie novels by Paul Magrs - the series begins with Never the Bride.

Some of Georgette Heyer's regency novels still have me crying with laughter too, even after several re-reads.

[Susie Vereker]

I like Laurie Graham (try At Sea ) and find Anne Tyler amusing too, in a subtle kind of way

[Dark Puss]

! Dear Sue I've been mistaken for many things, how do you know I'm not a cat disguised as a man?

[Cornflower]

They are definitely fun!

[Dark Puss]

I'll offer you a couple of "campus" novels. Not all of David Lodge's work has stood the test of time, Changing Places strikes me as very dated, but I strongly recommend Small World. Very witty indeed and if, like myself, you are a travelling academic then it will seem all very close to the bone too (but I've yet to meet Fulvia Morgana - another Morgana of course, but not Fulvia). In a similar style in many respects is Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury. Perhaps that one has dated a little ("Why come to Slaka?) but it's still great fun in my view.

[Cornflower]

Yes to more Henrietta - wonderful books.

[Cornflower]

If you are you've fooled me all these years, DP.

[Cornflower]

Noted. Thankyou, Mary.

[Mr Cornflower]

Pretty much all of the Mapp and Lucia books by E.F. Benson; and "How to be an Alien" by George Mikes.

[Cornflower]

Lots of great things there, by the sound of it, and having recently read Angela Thirkell for the first time and loved her books, I'd second that suggestion (High Rising is my favourite so far, and is a lovely fun read.)

[Cornflower]

Another vote for Georgette Heyer - for some reason, I hadn't expected her to name to crop up, but I can see why now she's been mentioned.
I haven't read Paul Magrs but have heard very good things of him (from you and Simon S., I think, Juxtabook).

[Cornflower]

Laurie Graham is fun! I do like Anne Tyler's sense of humour.

[Cornflower]

I read one or two by David Lodge years ago and remember them as very entertaining. Malcolm Bradbury I've yet to try.

[Cornflower]

How could I have forgotten Mapp and Lucia? Tremendous fun!

[AllisMcD]

I find the crime fiction of Joyce Holms (Fizz & Buchanan, set in Edinburgh)entertaining and funny.

MC Beaton's Agatha Raisin books are an undemanding read - I was fairly amused by the first few I read, but then I noticed a vein of snobbery which stopped me reading any more.

Incidentally, the most inappropriate place a book has made me laugh out loud has to be the Special Collections Reading Room at the NLS: I was looking through the manuscript of Mary Stewart's 'My Brother Michael' and (even though this is a book I have read several times since my schooldays)her description of Camilla's driving led to my guffawing in the silence. I blushed.

[Sue]

I do apologise sir.

[Rose]

Love in a Cold Climate, Pursuit of Love and Don't Tell Alfred: Nancy Mitford and One Pair of Hands: Monica Dickens

[Mary]

I'm not sure whether it's still in print but A Boy at the Hogarth Press (by Richard Kennedy) is great fun. Fly on the wall memoir of Virginia Woolf's teenage office boy.

[Aparatchick]

I recently sent a bundle of books to a friend who was looking for something light/humorous to read during chemotherapy sessions she was undergoing. I sent her Laurie Graham's "Gone with the Windsors," and Nancy Mitford's "The Pursuit of Love" both of which she enjoyed greatly. But her favorite was Shirley Jackson's "Life Among the Savages" which made her laugh out loud. It's hard to imagine the same Shirley Jackson who wrote "The Lottery" could write something so funny, but she did.

The other books I'd suggest are "An Uncommon Reader" by Alan Bennett, the Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend, and a more recent novel, "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" by Maria Semple.

[Ed]

I would add "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K Jerome, and some of Margery Allingham's whodunnits such as "The Case of the Late Pig". She wrote both humourous and serious books.

[Cornflower]

You probably broke the tension in the room, Allison, and made everyone feel more relaxed.
I haven't come across the Joyce Holms books before, but I'm always glad to know of Edinburgh books.

[Cornflower]

Yes to all those!

[cindy]

There's plenty of black humour in Evelyn Waugh, I remember laughing out loud when I read 'The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold'. Also, David Sedaris's 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' - a collection of essays about his life, and learning French in Paris. I can re-read a page or two and my mood is magically lifted.

[Cornflower]

There is a recent Hesperus edition, I see; I'd very much like to read that.

[Cornflower]

Some good ones there, thankyou Aparatchik. The Uncommon Reader is a hoot, and off at a tangent for a moment, I see Where'd you go, Bernadette? is on the longlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

[Cornflower]

I haven't read much Allingham yet but what I have read was fun. Thanks for the reminder, Ed.

[Cornflower]

I do find Waugh very funny though I know his humour is not to everyone's taste. I haven't read David Sedaris, but any 'magical mood-lifting' book is worth noting. Thankyou, Cindy.

[adele geras]

I'm with Mr Cornflower here: Mapp and Lucia and the wonderful George Mikes. HOW TO BE AN ALIEN! Also Wodehouse, some Pym, and lots of comforting thrillers. FUN books are the best! Agree about David Lodge with Dark Puss and must recommend Sophie Hannah's out of print campus novel CORDIAL AND CORROSIVE! Okay I'm her mother but I love this book of hers.

[Cornflower]

You are allowed to recommend your daughter's books!

[Thomas at My Porch]

I would second The Uncommon Reader and add Miss Buncle's Book, Flowers for Mrs Harris, and 84, Charing Cross Road.

[Cornflower]

Oh, yes, all of those, Thomas - pure delight!

[Claire]

When I'm in the mood for some light relief I go to Alexander McCall Smith's Isobel Dalhousie novels. Light reading with, for me anyway, an intelligent and and appealing heroine.

[Claire]

Of course, I also meant to say the wonderful Diary of a Nobody. Who could forget Cummings and Goings and Lupin!

[wigsonthegreen]

I'd recommend Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo for a quirky, fun read. (I think it was later re-titled for the US market.)

[Victoria Corby]

Diana Wynne Jones - especially Deep Secret, she had a wonderfully weird imagination that didn't take itself too seriously, The Provincial Lady of course, Shades of Grey (not the other one!) by Jasper fforde, clever and very funny, Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford, Kate Fenton - Breathing On Air, Jennifer Crusie - Welcome to Temptation, Connie Willie - To Say Nothing of the Dog, time travel romantic comedy and hilarious.

[Juxtabook]

Oh, yes, David Lodge, he'd slipped my mind. Great fun!

[Joan Kyler]

Lucia and Mapp, for sure, as well as Life Among the Savages. My other recommendation would be The Moosepath League books by Van Reid. They're old-fashioned, good clean fun novels with great characters, like the Ephram, Eagleton, and Thump, three charming, sweet, gentlemantly Three Stooges. It's hard to make me laugh, old, jaded woman that I am, but they do. I believe the author has just added a sixth book to the series.

[Rose]

This reminds me, Alan Bennett "The Laying on of Hands" - very, very funny.

[Rose]

"Scoop" (Evelyn Waugh) - William Boot - joy of joys!

[Margaret Powling]

Oh, Mapp & Lucia books every time! And there are a couple of follow-ups by Tom Holt if you can get them. I note someone has mentioned 84 Charing Cross Road and yes, that's wonderful, but most certainly isn't a comic novel as it is a real correspondence.

Has anyone mentioned the delightful Diary of a Nobody? Who could ever forget Mr Pooter painting his bath with red paint and coming out pink all over!

[Cornflower]

I love those books, too.

[Cornflower]

That was a fun read, though I remember when the CBG did it not everyone thought so!

[Cornflower]

I have that sitting right here (as yet unread, though).

[Cornflower]

That's a super-looking list, Victoria.

[Cornflower]

I like the sound of The Moosepath League books, and hadn't heard of them before. Thanks, Joan.

[Cornflower]

Poor old Mr. Pooter - nothing went right for him!