by ALAN TAYLOR & ROSEMARY GORING
by ALAN TAYLOR & ROSEMARY GORING
Ten comic novels
In anticipation of the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards this weekend, here are ten books guaranteed to make you giggle.
1 Para Handy Tales by Neil Munro
The Scottish high seas, and Dan Macphail's grimy boiler-room, are the setting for these deliciously unexciting tales of the hapless, handless crew aboard the Clyde Puffer, the Vital Spark. Not even the Corryvreckan could dampen their timeless wit.
2 Right Ho, Jeeves, by P G Wodehouse
The relationship between dimwitted Bertie Wooster and his butler Jeeves is a source of endless merriment for Wodehouse. In this instance, Bertie tries to solve his family's financial and emotional problems by suggesting they all stop eating to show their remorse/love/anxiety etc, with the result that the French chef resigns.
3 The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens
Dickens's first novel, published in 1836, relates the experiences of the members of the exclusive Pickwick Club, whose founder, Samuel Pickwick, Esquire is determined to learn about life in England beyond London. Filled with incident and memorable characters, it launched Dickens's stellar career.
4 Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh
When William Boot, who writes a nature column for the Daily Beast, is mistaken for a famous novelist and sent as foreign correspondent to Africa, he accidentally stumbles on a sensational scoop. Humour of the savage and wickedly accurate kind that Waugh does so well.
5 Love in a Cold Climate, by Nancy Mitford
A tale of the beautiful, unmarried Lady Leopoldina Hampton - Polly - who returns to England from India, desperately hoping that "in a cold climate", her family will be less obsessed with marrying her off well. The truth soon dawns on her in this elegant comedy of high society, whose darts keep hitting the bull's-eye.
6 Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
Droll and well-timed as only fiction from a standup performer can be, Lake Wobegon Days is a gentle portrait of small-town Minnesota, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average". They also all make cud-chewing cows look lively.
7 Lost for Words, by Edward St Aubyn
St Aubyn's send-up of the London literary world and its most prestigious and quixotic book prize, is heartfelt. Scheming novelists and prejudiced judges are the backbone of a work set in a milieu that, for those who know it well, could be considered beyond satire.
8 Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis
Amis's first novel lampoons English redbrick academia, as seen by the lower middle class Jim Dixon - in part inspired by Amis's friend Philip Larkin - who is a history lecturer struggling to reconcile olde worlde values and prejudices with new. A precocious piece of observation and spirited fun.
9 Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons
This, Gibbons's best novel, has bequeathed the phrase, "something nasty in the woodshed" to generations of readers. A parodic piece of historical gothic fiction, set on a miserably dreary farm in Sussex, it sees 19-year-old Londoner Flora Poste descend on her relatives, determined to tidy and modernise their ramshackle rural lives.
10 Whisky Galore, by Compton Mackenzie
Based on the real life incident when the SS Politician was wrecked off the Hebrides, this is a rollicking tale of wartime derring do, with the islanders of Great Todday and Little Todday determined to keep the 50,000 cases of whisky they have looted from a stricken ship out of the hands of the authorities.
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