80 of the funniest stories ever written, selected and introduced by comedian and broadcaster Paul Merton.
From Anton Chekhov to Ali Smith, from P.G. Wodehouse to Nora Ephron, the greatest writers are those who know how to have a laugh. Here, award-winning comedian and ... read more

The definitive collection of works on a subject that inspired and haunted Charles Bukowski for his entire life: alcohol.Charles Bukowski turns to the bottle in this revelatory collection of poetry and prose that includes some of the writer's best and most lasting work. A sel... read more

Epitaphs of the Great War: The Last 100 Days is the third instalment in a collection that presents headstone inscriptions from the graves of soldiers killed during World War I. Limited by the Imperial War Graves Commission to sixty-six characters, these inscriptions are ma... read more

Margaret Drabble | Beryl Bainbridge | Angela Carter | Maggie O'Farrell | Elizabeth Jane Howard | A. S. Byatt | Penelope Lively | Sarah Waters | Jonathan Coe | Diana Souhami | Jilly Cooper | Elizabeth Bowen | Mark Bostridge | Alexander McCall Smith | Sarah Dunant | Rac... read more

'Thoughtful, subtle, elegantly clever and oddly joyous, Every Third Thought is beautiful' Kate Mosse In 1995, at the age of forty two, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic and near-fatal stroke, the subject of his acclaimed memoir My Year ... read more

Damien Cave: (New York Times bureau chief in Sydney & friend of Bookoccino)
"Not many books about writing manage to be both as practical and entertaining as this one. Even if you've never read a Stephen King novel, the insights he shares wi... read more

Should you finish every book you start? How has your family influenced the way you read? What is literary style? How is the Nobel Prize like the World Cup? Why do you hate the book your friend likes? Is writing really just like any othe... read more

Since ancient times human beings have gathered together for social purposes. And since not very long after that writers have written about these occasions. The party is a useful literary device, not only for social comment and satire, but as an occasion where characters... read more

Since her suicide in 1963 at the age of 30, Sylvia Plath has become a strange icon. This book addresses why this is the case and what this tells us about the way culture picks out important writers. The author argues that without a concept of fantasy we can understand neither Plath's work nor what she... read more

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A brilliant, wide-ranging collection of essays and journalism, spanning the photography of Martin Parr to the paintings of Turner, the writing of Scott-Fitzgerald to the criticism of Susan Sontag, and includes extensive personal pieces.

Herge's Tintin cartoon adventures have been translated into more than fifty languages and read by tens of millions of children aged, as their publishers like to say, 'from 7 to 77'. Arguing that their characters are as strong and their plots as complex as... read more