12 Medieval French plays rendered into modern English by the translator of 'The Farce of the Fart', scurrilous, sexy, stupid, satirical, scatological, side splitting.' Enders is unafraid to reference modern comedy in her translations as she assesses these comedies from half a millennium ago. Did you hear about the newlywed who rushes off for legal advice before the honeymoon is over? Or the husbands who arrange for an enormous tub in which to cure their sugary wives with a pinch of salt? How about a participatory processional toward marriage so sacrilegious that it puts Chaucer's pilgrimage to shame? And who could have imagined a medieval series of plays devoted to spouse-swapping? Jody Enders has heard and seen all this and more and shares it in her volume of performance-friendly translations of Medieval French farces. Carefully culled from more than 200 extant plays and crafted with a wit and contemporary sensibility to make them playable today, these dozen bawdy plays take on the hilariously depressing and depressingly hilarious state of holy wedlock. In 15th and 16th century comedy, love and marriage had everything to do with arranged marriages of child brides to doddering old men, frustration, fear, anxiety, jealousy, disappointment and despair matched only by the eagerness with which everybody sings, dances and cavorts in pursuit of deception, trickery and adultery. Easily recognisable stock characters come vividly to life, struggling to negotiate the limits of power, class and gender, each embodying the distinctive blend of wit, social critique and breathless boisterousness that is farce. There are notes on stage directions, grammar and style, music and choreography and brief plot summaries and the 12 plays include The Newlywed Game, The Shithouse, Holy Deadlock, Bitches and Pussycats, Wife Swap and Extreme Husband Makeover among them. There are four to six actors in The Shithouse - Wily Willy, the valet who manages to make out like a bandit assisting in the assignation between his mistress Kitty and her Lover, the dandyish Sir Allcock. Allcock arrives with a picnic but when the Husband arrives home at an inopportune moment, the poor Lover has nowhere to hide but the Latrine. He is forced to shove his head and more into the privy hole, literally shitfaced after an interrupted feast. 536pp.

Social media star, agony aunt, yoga teacher, curious cat Zelda knows how to live life curiously. 'I am always listening to the radio in the kitchen - not by choice, mind you. Over time, I have notice that cats are not fairly represented in songs?. 14 really daft examples follow like: 'If you liked it then you should have put a string on it' by Meowncé. Zelda confides in her diary: 'I met a handsome cat tonight... he was a lot cleaner than ShabbyTabby and he had a nice meow. I had suggested going somewhere casual for a couple of water bowls, but he insisted on The Wheely Bin. He clearly wanted to impress me...' and popsicles and garden hopping and restaurant dining and following the red dot but losing her behind the magazine rack, squirrels and houseflies and fantastic zany illustrations with cartoon additions and captions like 'Just lost my job as a PE teacher. My pupils got too big' with a huge-eyed picture of lucky black cat Zelda with her white bib from her website plentyoffish.com. Find out how she communicates with furniture and how she handles humans, sniffing the lampshade, getting into the sock drawer just before it closes and an entire lifestyle of purrvilege. All great fun, 192 pages, softback, utterly enchanting colour illus. and photo montage illus.

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, Calico Pie and The Pobble Who Has No Toes, together with Edward Lear's crazy limericks, have entertained adults and children alike for over 100 years. This edition, illustrated by the author, contains all the verse and stories of The Book of Nonsense, More Nonsense, Nonsense Songs, Nonsense Stories and Nonsense Alphabets and Nonsense Cookery. It has a biographical Preface by Lear himself, and concludes with some delightful 'heraldic' sketches of his cat, Foss. 272pp. Paperback.

A smiling white whippet wearing a Tudor ruff and lace collar graces the front cover of these artistically refined portraits of dogs which look like Old Masters. In humorous, almost philosophical texts, Tein Lucasson gives each of his animal protagonists an unmistakeable character, from the Labrador to the Pug, the Spaniel to the Dalmatian dressed as Wellington, the little Italian Greyhound with her big doe eyes dressed as Greta Garbo with a shy, all-knowing look, in full Tudor costume with human hands, slim and always happy, "Maisie has been widowed four times and lives on bottled grape juice to keep herself slim and happy (in a spaced-out way)". With text in English, German and Italian on the facing pages opposite the full page colour portraits of these anthropomorphised mix of dogs of many breeds, poodles and terriers and pugs and mongrel in a sailor suit, our favourite must be Olive, standing upright as a pensive young bride she is another white whippet. Truly a dog lover, this artist is rarely seen in Great Britain and you will either find this icky or adore his 88 quirky, humorous portraits by the talented graphic designer and digital photographer. A quality teNeues publication, 192 pages, 22.23 x 28.7cm. All in colour.
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Imagine your cat dressed as Elvis with a wild gleam in his eye and pulsating hips, or your prim and proper guinea pig kitted out as our dear late Queen, with a slightly disapproving stare and a bit of a twinkle. The artworks blend comic-con and the global celebrity phenomenon with our fascination with anthropomorphising pets. All your pet fantasies come true in this bewitching volume, where your pets "live their best lives" through the medium of fantasy. Michael Jackson in his trademark frogged jacket regards us mournfully in the face of an uncanny canine lookalike, while David Bowie as a Zigzaggy Starman looks out of the frame with his customary detachment. Ozzie Osbourne in purple specs and Gothic gear is perfectly captured by a jowly Labrador. From the world of film, Captain Jack Sparrow is a spiky black feline with high boots and a swagger, Miss Piggy has a personalised pink handbag and red bow, while a guinea pig as Count Dracula sports impressive prosthetic teeth - or are they actually his own? Sherlock Holmes and Poirot are easily identifiable by the deerstalker and moustache, the yellow eyes of Sally Bowles look out from beneath her trademark hat, and a white feline with spectacular false eyelashes makes a fabulous Marilyn, contrasting with the Blues Brothers glowering at the reader on a nearby page. Clint Eastwood's narrowed eyes beneath the battered brown hat convey the swashbuckling hero of dozens of westerns, Del Boy is unmistakeable under the check cap, Tommy Cooper has his fez, and we go back to our guinea pig friend for Dame Edna Everage with sparkly flyway specs, purple hair and a dress encrusted with bling. World leaders include the Pope, Churchill, Mother Teresa and Donald Trump. No page numbers, but about 80 fantastically costumed pets. 25 x 32cm. Text in English, French and German.
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Our favourite cats and dogs all need a special friend they can batter to bits, and the brilliant concept for this volume is to photograph a collection of dismembered toys and match some of them with a commentary from their owners - the savage canines and felines who show their love by inflicting maximum injury. An aggrieved black and white toy glares out of the picture and tells the story of how he was rescued from a plastic bin in an all-night mart by none other than his hero, Frank Sinatra himself. Frank came in with his girlfriend for a bottle of Jack Daniels and in no time at all our furry friend was in the limo heading for the concert. But he never got to hear his idol sing, because the inebriated Frank seized him and started to chew on his fur, and the bodyguard threw him out of the car. A cute legless bear warns "Never get divorced in California". When Johnny ran off with Lila to Vegas, everything went fine at first and their bear Lucky went everywhere with them. When Lila got her break in a reality show, though, Johnny was unable to handle the disparity and took it out on the bear, insisting the injuries had been inflicted by their dog, though as the bear got to stay with the now-rich partner he wasn't complaining too much. Polyphemus, a melancholy long-eared toy with a gaping hole where his eyes should be, laments the fact that his master Odysseus, the author of his wound, gets star billing from literary types like Homer or James Joyce. Rabbits, gonks, a battered Ernie from Sesame Street all lament their fates. No page numbers, 130 colour photos. Softback.
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Sub-titled 'A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves and Braggarts' we enter a rowdy street gang scouring a tavern. Gentlewomen hold insolent eye contact. Drunkards wag dirty fingers at the dinner table. Every age and social strata has its rule-breakers and nose-thumbers, but Elizabethan England perhaps had more than its fair share. Ruth Goodman takes us into raucous troublemaking times illuminating the Elizabethan era. She cheerfully embraces the naughty bits of the 16th and 17th centuries, having researched advice manuals, court cases and sermons offering a veritable how-to guide for both the cheeky and the downright cunning. Find out why nose-blowing was disgusting while spitting was acceptable, while curses hurled at women were almost always about sex. This was a time that a new 'brand of religion and non-religion' was born - democracy was evolving in areas such as voting, representation and taxation, and a linguistic evolution spread through the streets and on the page. Here is the nitty gritty of daily life for merchants, street sellers and others, 1550-1660 Stuart and Tudor England, including offensive speech and gestures, the perverse delights of mockery and ridicule, the ripostes of physical violence, and a gallery of repellent habits and repulsive displays of bodily functions like 'a turd in your teeth'. Please be aware that we have in stock the American edition of a book first published in Britain under the title 'How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain.' 314pp, charming woodcut illus. Remainder mark.

Co-presenter of BBC Radio 4's 'The Infinite Monkey Cage' and a radio double act and stand-up worldwide partner of Professor Brian Cox, Robin Ince has a lovely daddy who's a big customer of Bibliophile! In his touching and witty book, Robin uses the life of the stand-up comedian as a way of exploring some of the biggest questions we all face. Where does anxiety come from? How do we overcome imposter syndrome? What is the key to creativity? How can we deal with grief? He asks you to look at your childhood, tells us about the brain, hardware and chemistry, talking about yourself behind your back, daydreaming for a purpose, getting to know your inner fraud, anxiety, morals and temptations and thinking about death. Where is thy Punchline? Informed by personal insights from Robin as well as interviews with some of the world's top comedians, neuroscientists and psychologists, this is an hilarious and often moving primer to the mind, and a powerful call to embrace the full breadth of our own inner experience, no matter how strange or worrying that may be! 276pp.

Bring out your inner Elvis or instantly become a man by choosing the black, blonde or ginger pairs of furry nearly triangular shaped (but neatly tuck under the ear) authentic-ish looking sideburns for dressing up and family fun. Sealed for extra freshness, CE safety approved, a fantastic addition to any costume and dressing up box.

Satirist and cartoonist Peter Brookes had a field day with the characters of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson dominant in this book, captured so well with his sweeping and colourful pen. Has anyone ever captured the facets of Boris so well? This unmissable new collection of sketches of contemporary political life showcases the stand-out pieces from his daily cartoons in The Times, breath-taking in their bite and wit. He begins with a series of four panels showing Myanmar's ruler, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, her halo inverting and a military cap descending until she is in full military regalia, with blood on her hands, President Trump takes selfies and wears a badge Hail Me! And when Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner dies, Boris Johnson's huge rear end is pictured, him in Playboy bunny costume with huge red lips. Theresa May's persistent cough is here caused by the leapfrog Boris, there are blasts from the past in China, Zimbabwe, with military takeovers and the brilliant Nature Notes, one on page 15 of the Complete Tits and the absolutely brilliant reclining Boris after Velazquez's Rokeby Venus, blowing himself a kiss. And of course Brexit, Meghan Markle, Strictly Come Widdecombe, 5G network, the royal family and more. Foreword by Daniel Finkelstein, 2019. You have to admire this incredible artwork, churned out daily and with such topical references of the day. 112pp, 27 x 21cm.