Books

This section of the site contains an eclectic selection of books that I find interesting.

Humour

The master comedian, Ronnie Barker is celebrated here with 12 books by and about him. They are here. 

British naughty seaside postcards were produced in industrial quantities in the 20th century – here are some books that chronicle and illustrate their history. Just follow this link 

The Mini Ha Ha series of joke books are represented by 10 copies here

There are now some 20 odd copies of Pick of Punch from 1944 to 1998 here for you to enjoy

Almanacks

We start the new year with a massive new post of Whitaker’s Almanack with 22 copies of the almanack covering the period up to the 21st century.  The books contain a vast amount of information about matters astronomical, phenomenological and statistical about government, finances, population, and commerce of the various nations of the world. They are here.

The BBC has published a number of books over the years – an interesting selection is here 

There is a new copy of a manual called News Of The World Household Guide and Almanac here

The BBC produced a year book from 1928 onward for most of the rest of the century. We have most of them here.

Christmas
A new small selection of Christmas books is here 

Wit Wisdom Quotes And Letters

I have altered the title of the Letters to the Telegraph page to widen it’s appeal to include all readers letters books. This has allowed me to include 3 more,

Outraged Of Tunbridge Wells, letters to the Tunbridge Wells Chronicle
I Am Sure I Speak For Others, letters to the BBC
I’ve Said It Before, letters to the Daily Mail
They are all here

The Daily Telegraph has been publishing readers letters books for years (and some others) – here are 10 of them

There are a large number of books containing witty sayings of famous people – here are a few

Eclectic Light Fiction

Micheal Green published a series of humorous classics with titles like The Art Of Coarse… Sport or… Rugby or… Sex. There is a selection here

“The Archers” is a long running radio drama – over the years they have spawned a selection of books – some are here 

Henry Cecil wrote a large number of books about the British legal system – there are 10 here 

Richard Gordon was a hugely successful author based on his Doctor books and the films they spawned – there are 12 here

George Mikes wrote ironic humour about nations especially the iconic “How to be an Alien”, they are here

Stephen Potter wrote the legendary Gamesmanship books including Anti Woo – a selection is here

No collection like this would be complete without “1066 And All That” and “Now All This” by Sellars and Yeatman – so here they are

There is a page with compilations of humour that are actually funny here

AP Herbert and his famous “Misleading Cases” are here

Non Fiction

There is a large selection of the classic educational texts published by Pelican here

Newnes produced popular non-fiction mega works. Here we have “Better Home Making”.

Holiday Haunts from GWR are a series of books that were published in the early 20th century. They are an amazing snapshot of their time. You can check them out here.