Lucky ​Jim

David Lodge - The ​Picturegoers
The ​Palladium, Brickley, is the haunting setting for this novel. Here is a seedy Saturday night venue which attracts people searching for something new in their lives. Mark, Clare and Father Kipling are just three of the characters featured.

David Lodge - Nice ​Work
Vic ​Wilcox a self-made man and managing director of an engineering firm, has little regard for academics, and even less for feminists. So when Robyn Penrose, a trendy leftist teacher, is assigned to "shadow" Vic under a government program created to foster mutual understanding between town and gown, the hilarious collision of lifestyles and ideologies that ensues seems unlikely to foster anything besides mutual antipathy. But in the course of a bumpy year, both parties make some surprising discoveries about each other's world's - and about themselves.

David Lodge - A ​David Lodge Trilogy
Changing ​Places - Small World - Nice Work This omnibus lines up David Lodge's trio of brilliantly comic novels that revolve around the University of Rummidge and the lives of its role-swapping academics. When Philip Swallow, lecturer in English at Rummidge, changes places with flamboyant Morris Zapp of Euphoric State University, USA, trouble ensues. Then, ten years on, older but not noticeably wiser, they are let loose on the international conference circuit - a veritable academic carnival. And finally, Dr Robyn Penrose becomes part of a scheme to learn about industry instead of reading about it, with hilarious results. David Lodge exposes the dizzy pursuit of knowledge - literary, commercial, romantic and erotic - with unparalleled wit and insight.

David Lodge - Paradise ​News
Agnostic ​theologian Bernard Walsh has a professional interest in heaven. But, when he travels to Hawaii with his father, Jack, it is not in quest of a vacation paradise; it is to visit Jack's dying, estranged sister. The hand of fate and family tensions frustrate the planned reunion, however. And surrounded by quarrelling honeymooners, girls looking for Mr Right, a freeloading anthropologist, and assorted tourists all determinedly pursuing their humdrum visions of paradise, Bernard finds Waikiki more like purgatory. Until, that is, he stumbles upon something he had given up hope of finding - the astonishing possibility of love... _'Amusing, accessible, intelligent ... the story rolls, the sparks fly'_ - Financial Times _'Lodge could never be solemn and the book crackles with good jokes ... leaves you with a mild, and thoughtful, glow of happiness'_ - Sunday Telegraph _'Funny and clever'_ - Independent on Sunday _'An appealing addition to the line-up of accomplished novels in which Lodge puts humour to humane purposes and intelligence to instructive ends'_ - Sunday Times _'Extremely funny and sharply perceptive about the way we live now'_ - Evening Standard _'Further proof that Lodge is master of ... subtle, scintillating satire'_ - Daily Mail

P. G. Wodehouse - Leave ​it to Psmith
Lady ​Constance Keeble, sister of Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle, has both an imperious manner and a valuable diamond necklace. The precarious peace of Blandings is shattered when her necklace becomes the object of dark plottings, for within the castle lurk some well-connected jewel thieves - among them the Honourable Freddie Threepwood, Lord Emsworth's younger son, who wants the reward money to set up a bookmaking business. Psmith, the elegant socialist, is also after it for his newly married chum Mike. And on patrol with the impossible task of bringing management to Blandings is the Efficient Baxter, whose strivings for order lead to a memorable encounter with the castle flowerpots. Will peace ever return to Blandings Castle ... ?

Terry Pratchett - Wyrd ​Sisters
Terry ​Pratchett takes on Shakespeare in this sixth installment in the long-running parodic fantasy series set on the Discworld. Rigidly honorable, nasty-tempered witch Granny Weatherwax, who first appeared in EQUAL RITES, is back, joined by two other witches: matronly, raunchy Nanny Ogg and soppy, ineffective Magrat. This coven of three, aided by the ghost of the newly murdered king, must defend the tiny realm of Lancre and protect its rightful heir from the usurping Macbeth-like couple Duke and Duchess Felmet.

David Lodge - Therapy
A ​successful sitcom writer with plenty of money, a stable marriage, a platonic mistress and a flashy car, Laurence 'Tubby' Passmore has more reason than most to be happy. Yet neither physiotherapy nor aromatherapy, cognitive-behaviour therapy or acupuncture can cure his puzzling knee pain or his equally inexplicable mid-life angst. As Tubby's life fragments under the weight of his self-obsession, he embarks - via Kierkegaard, strange beds from Rummidge to Tenerife to Beverly Hills, a fit of literary integrity and memories of his 1950s South London boyhood - on a picaresque quest for his lost contentment, in an ingenious, hilarious and poignant novel of neuroses.

Terry Pratchett - Eric
Eric ​is the Discworld's only demonology hacker. Pity he's not very good at it. All he wants is his three wishes granted. Nothing fancy: to be immortal, to rule the world and have the most beautiful woman in the world fall madly in love with him. The usual stuff. But instead of a tractable demon, Eric calls up Rincewind, the most incompetent wizard in the universe, and his extremely intractable and hostile travel accessory, the Luggage. With them on his side, Eric's in for a ride through space and time that is bound to make him wish (quite fervently) again - this time that he'd never been born.

David Lodge - The ​British Museum is Falling Down
The ​Rhythm Method is the curse of young Adam Appleby's life and the cause of his children's. While Adam gestates his thesis in the British Museum, his wife worries at home because her period is late and a fourth little bundle of (expensive) joy seems to be on the way, thanks to 'Vatican Roulette'. Though Adam’s experience is constantly coloured by the authors he is studying, one distinction remains clear: 'Literature is mostly about having sex, and not much about having children. Life is the other way round.'A sharply perceptive comic novel, 'London Bridge is Falling Down' brilliantly captures the absurd, pitiful dilemma of Catholics in the days when the Pill was just an enticing rumour.

P. G. Wodehouse - Pigs ​Have Wings
Lord ​Emsworth's quick-witted brother must stop the portly Sir Gregory Parsloe's plan to slim down Emsworth's prize porker with a new miracle weight-loss drug.

David Lodge - Small ​World
The ​unbridled greed, pettiness, buffoonery and intellectual gobbledegook in the world of higher scholarship are the topics of this thorough and thoroughly funny "roman à English department". It's interesting for a couple of reasons, aside from its humour and lampoonery: it's an insider's view of things--always the best kind--and it takes its old- fashioned time telling a story, complete with reasonable digressions about the state of literary criticism and what may or may not be a realistic view of the academic life.

Ben Elton - Stark
Stark ​has more money than God and the social conscience of a dog on a croquet lawn. What's more, they know the Earth is dying, so deep in Western Australia a planet-sized plot takes shape. Unfortunately all that stands in the way of the conspiracy are four inept green freaks.

Douglas Adams - The ​Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
At ​last in paperback in one complete volume, here are the five classic novels from Douglas Adams's beloved Hitchiker series. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Facing annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat. Life, the Universe and Everything The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky- so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription conspires to thrust him back to reality. So to speak. Mostly Harmless Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?

Douglas Adams - The ​Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - A Trilogy in Five Parts
First ​a legendary radio series, then a bestselling book, now a blockbusting movie, the immensely successful Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy needs no introduction. Reissued to coincide with the films release, this hardback omnibus edition include all five parts of the trilogy, incorporating for the first time, Mostly Harmless, along with a guide to the guide and essential notes on how to leave the planet. This single hardback edition is indispensable for any would-be galactic traveller and for old and new Douglas Adams fans everywhere.

Douglas Adams - Mostly ​Harmless
Arthur ​Dent hasn't had a day as bad as this since the Earth was blown up. Depressed and alone, Arthur settles on the small planet Lamuella and becomes a sandwich maker. Looking forward to a quiet life, his plans are thrown awry by the unexpected arrival of his daughter.

Woody Allen - Side ​Effects
A ​humor classic by one of the funniest writers today, SIDE EFFECTS is a treat for all those who know his work and those just discovering how gifted he is. Included here are such classics as REMEMBERING NEEDLEMAN, THE KUGELMASS EPISODE, a new story called CONFESSIONS OF A BUGLAR, and more.

J. K. Rowling - Harry ​Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
There ​is a door at the end of a silent corridor. And it's haunting Harry Potter's dreams. Why else would he be waking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror? Here are just a few things on Harry's mind: - A Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality like poisoned honey. - A venomous, disgruntled house-elf - Ron as keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team - The looming terror of the end-of-term Ordinary Wizarding Level exams . . . and of course, the growing threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. In the richest installment yet of J. K. Rowling's seven-part story, Harry Potter is faced with the unreliability of the very government of the magical world and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), he finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew, boundless loyalty; and unbearable sacrifice. Though thick runs the plot, listeners will race through these tapes and leave Hogwarts, like Harry, wishing only for the next train back.

Jennifer Weiner - Good ​in Bed
For ​twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie Shapiro. Sure, her mother has come charging out of the closet, and her father has long since dropped out of her world. But she loves her friends, her rat terrier, Nifkin, and her job as pop culture reporter for The Philadelphia Examiner. She's even made a tenuous peace with her plus-size body. But the day she opens up a national women's magazine and sees the words "Loving a Larger Woman" above her ex-boyfriend's byline, Cannie is plunged into misery...and the most amazing year of her life. From Philadelphia to Hollywood and back home again, she charts a new course for herself: mourning her losses, facing her past, and figuring out who she is and who she can become.

D. H. Lawrence - Sons ​and Lovers
Drawing ​on his own childhood and adolescence, Lawrence depicts the early married life of the Morels - the father a hardworking, hard-drinking Nottinhamshire coal miner, the mother a refined woman of middle-class aspirations. Born into the family battle, their son Paul Morel initially takes his mother's part, until in adolescence he meets and falls in love with a young girl, Miriam, and discovers a new conflict of loyalties. Sons and Lovers portrays the sexual and emotional struggle of Paul Morel, caught between the women he attempted to love, and in it D. H. Lawrence transforms autobiography into art.

Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's ​Travels
Considered ​the greatest satire ever written in English, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels chronicles the fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, principally to four marvelous realms: Lilliput, where the people are six inches tall; Brobdingnag, a land inhabited by giants; Laputa, a wondrous flying island; and a country where the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent horses, are served by savage humanoid creatures called Yahoos. Beneath the surface of this enchanting fantasy lurks a devastating critique of human malevolence, stupidity, greed, vanity, and short-sightedness. A brilliant combination of adventure, humor, and philosophy, Gulliver’s Travels is one of literature’s most durable masterpieces.