Historical Humor

Mr Edgar Finchley, unmarried clerk, aged 45, is told to take a holiday for the first time in his life. He decides to go to the seaside. But Fate has other plans in store...From his abduction by a cheerful crook, to his smuggling escapade off the south coast, the timid but plucky Mr Finchley is plunged into a series of the most astonishing and extraordinary adventures. His rural adventure takes him gradually westward through the English countryside and back, via a smuggling yacht, to London.

'63 will take you inside the huddle as the 1963 Chicago Bears challenge for the World Championship of Professional football. These Monster's of The Midway took no prisoner's on their march to glory. This story told through the eyes of the players and coaches who were there provides a compelling look back at professional football in the early 1960s.

Love is just a stone’s throw away There is nothing more important to a young lady than her introduction to Society. Ladies such as these are as plentiful as blackberries. And then … there is Julia. A second Season holds no appeal for Lady Julia Hunter. Barely surviving her first Season, she is once more being coerced into returning to London. Due to an unfortunate turn of events, Julia finds herself being indebted to someone whom she would much rather avoid as well as being almost glad to be leaving home. Jason Fortescue, Earl of Linfield, returns to Ashcroft Court after many years, ...

Can a mystical journey heal a heart of darkness Tom Logan awakens from a drug-induced coma clutching a mysterious black diamond, his only clue to finding his missing brother in the rugged Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. Enter Amber Armstrong, a passionate poet-turned-police-officer who ignites sparks in Tom’s heart. Tom and Amber venture into the unknown together, discovering a hidden valley brimming with precious, uncut diamonds and a utopian society long concealed from the modern world. With the help of an old Bible, they attempt to unravel the valley’s secrets, but danger looms in ...

Gravedigger John Gascoigne lives in Downfell Hurst with his wife, Florrie, their three children and his mother, Gran. John is a deep thinker but extremely taciturn - a man of few words and many grunts. Which is why everyone is alarmed when he's hit on the head by a cricket ball, and it suddenly seems as if the words won't stop. What's more, he says he is talking to Saint Christopher - only no one else can see the saint, and they're beginning to worry John's not quite right in the head.

A Culinary Journey Through History The Celebrity Cookbook explores the truly important question: What on earth did famous people eat? Part cookbook, part comedy, part historical expedition gone slightly off course, this book is your guide to the favourite meals and drinks of emperors, rock stars, poets, pirates, and philosophers—some of whom really should have seen a nutritionist. The Celebrity Cookbook is a no-nonsense, laugh-out-loud collection of the actual (and occasionally ridiculous) favourite meals and drinks of the world’s most famous people—alive, dead, or somewhere in ...

It’s the summer of 1982 and fourteen-year-old Swanna Swain is the only one left at camp. The place is a ghost town by the time her mother Val finally shows up six hours late—stoned and radiant—in a Ford pickup driven by Borislav, her new young Russian lover. Assuming she is headed home to her air-conditioned Upper West Side apartment, Swanna and her lovable younger brother Madding are instead dragged to Vermont—to an artist colony where kids are not welcome and they are forced to sleep in the back of the truck, while Val is cozy inside the house with the Russian.

Led by future Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis and legendary coach Ben Schwarzwalder, this group of hardnosed young men pushed their way to the top of college football in 1959. An improbable story with an improbable ending, where hard work and total dedication created a remarkable undefeated season.

In the idyllic backdrop of Ballycross, County Cork, Seren once reveled in the bliss of marriage to Frenchman André while managing their quaint wine shop. A perfect world, it seemed, until an unforeseen tragedy shattered everything. Determined not to be a mere pawn in the game of fate, Seren takes charge of her destiny. In this journey, she discovers the stark difference between fate and faith—realizing that control is a powerful force. The revelation of an enigmatic email destined for her husband propels Seren into a harrowing mystery. Abandoning the comforts of Ballycross, she ventures ...

There is a hauntingly beautiful forest located at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. Every year, up to one hundred people visit the forest and never leave. It is called ‘Suicide Forest’ and one man strives to save as many lives as possible. The Gulch is a fictional story based in Cumbria, England. A village tortured by an unspeakable history, relentless visitors, and a chilling murder mystery within a burnt-out room inside an abandoned hotel. Just one man applied. An extraordinary job interview for a unique and macabre position. Perhaps Rod was the only man who could meet the requirements...

Picture it: Pine Grove, Louisiana. The year is 1986. A clueless divorced man stumbles into a world he never knew existed: aerobics class. Stacy I’ve always been the practical one in my friend group. Level-headed. Responsible. Cautious. Until the day HE came into my aerobics class… Jessie After I got divorced I decided it was time to get back into shape. I’d let myself get a bit soft over the years I was married. I was lifting weights at the community center when another guy said that aerobic exercise was the key to burning fat. When I saw a sign for Aerobics class, I figured that was ...

In volume II of The Flashman Papers, Flashman tangles with femme fatale Lola Montez and the dastardly Otto Von Bismarck in a battle of wits which will decide the destiny of a continent.

In this volume of The Flashman Papers, Flashman, the arch-cad and toady, matches his wits, his talents for deceit and malice, and above all his speed in evasion against the most brilliant European statesman and against the most beautiful and unscrupulous adventuress of the era.

"Michaels truly shines in this gem of a historical romance rich in witty dialogue and intriguing political maneuverings.” -- Review by Patty Engelmann American Library Association Perry Shepherd, Earl of Brentwood, presents himself to Society as a bit of a fribble; carefree, fairly indolent, and bored to flinders by anything remotely political. But appearances can deceive, because scratch that polished surface and the real Perry appears, an invaluable and rather ruthless covert asset to England during the late war with Bonaparte. Perry ignores the reappearance of Princess Caroline, ...

The adventures of an intelligence agent in Yorkist England. Alianore tells the true story of Richard III - but don't look here for a conventional historical novel.

Brussels, 1943. Twelve-year-old street orphan Helene survives by living as a boy and selling copies of the country’s most popular newspaper, Le Soir, now turned into Nazi propaganda. Helene’s entire world changes when she befriends a rogue journalist, Marc Aubrion, who draws her into a secret network that publishes dissident underground newspapers. The Nazis track down Aubrion’s team and give them an impossible choice: Turn the resistance newspapers into a Nazi propaganda bomb that will sway public opinion against the Allies, or be killed.

In 1954, after the government implements the Indian Termination Act, three Klamath brothers are forced to contemplate their futures amidst the growing turmoil of life on the reservation.

A marijuana mystery, the story of Rolland Greene. Rolland Greene, a local writer, and his friends find themselves wrapped up in a complex paper chase. Rolland Greene takes you to the heartland of Northern California and reveals the mind and heart of a Mendonesian caught up in high strangeness. Rolland spends his time writing his political treatise, but suddenly finds himself trying to survive the tumult surrounding his lifestyle and friends. Rolland and his buds all find themselves tormented by bad luck when criminals begin pursuit of a treasure unique to Mendocino, the guidebook to crime. ...

When Hubert Larnaudie invites some fellow residents of his Parisian apartment building to drink an exceptional bottle of 1954 Beaujolais, he has no idea of its special properties. The following morning, Hubert finds himself waking up in 1950s Paris, as do antique restorer Magalie, mixologist Julien, and Airbnb tenant Bob from Milwaukee, who's on his first trip to Europe. After their initial shock, the city of Edith Piaf and An American in Paris begins to work its charm on them.

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages, and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all. Flash Harry is back! The first new Flashman novel since Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, this is the long-awaited new installment of the Flashman Papers.

Welcome to the Palace movie theater! Now Showing: Philandering husbands, ghostly sidekicks, and a murder or two. When Nora Paige’s movie-star husband leaves her for his latest co-star, she flees Hollywood to take refuge in San Francisco at the Palace, a historic movie theater that shows the classic films she loves. There she finds a band of misfit film buffs who care about movies (almost) as much as she does. She also finds some shady financial dealings and the body of a murdered stranger. Oh, and then there’s Trixie, the lively ghost of a 1930’s usherette who appears only to Nora and...