CONTENTS Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands How Santa Claus came to Simpson's Bar The Princess Bob and her Friends The Iliad of Sandy Bar Mr. Thompson's Prodigal The Romance of Madroqo Hollow The Poet of Sierra Flat The Christmas Gift that came to Rupert

Telling the story of the nineties through the TV that we watched and the people who made it, this is a kiss under the mistletoe with the shows the defined a nation and a fumble with the things that fell through the cracks. From "Bullseye" to B*Witched, Ben Baker takes a nostalgic potter through the past whilst documenting its impact on the present. Its an era where we said "Eh-oh" to the Teletubbies and goodbye to the Trotters, Noel Edmonds was everywhere and people nervously waited out the Millennium and the end of times it would inevitably bring. A time where mobile phones, the internet and DVD were becoming an affordable reality yet co-existed in a world where Bamboozle on Teletext, the Funfax and VHS cassette labels marked in red ink "MUM'S TAPE - SOLDIER SOLDIER - DO NOT TOUCH" were still a regular sight in many homes. Programmes featured include "Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game", "Bernard and the Genie", "Des O' Connor Tonight", "Stella Street", "The Wrong Trousers", "Teletubbies", "Newman and Baddiel Christmas in Pieces", "The Ghosts of Oxford Street", "Maid Marian and Her Merry Men", "TFI Friday", "Men Behaving Badly", "Auntie's Bloomers", "2 Point 4 Children", "Stars In Their Eyes", "Light Lunch", "Walker, Texas Ranger", "Dinnerladies", "Beavis and Butt-Head", "Father Ted", "Gladiators", "The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon", "The Flint Street Nativity" and "The Wizard Of Oz...On Ice". No really. Plus star names including Take That, Madonna, Harry Hill, Quentin Crisp, Lenny Henry, Mrs Merton, Willie Carson, Adam and Joe, Johnny Vegas, Rory Bremner, Edd The Duck, Mr Blobby, Lulu, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Spice Girls. It was the nineties and it feels like it happened only two minutes ago and simultaneously in another lifetime.

How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar, is universally conceded to rank among Bret Harte's best tales.

Not Exactly Ghosts by Andrew Caldecott is a collection of downright terrifying tales of blood, anger, and jealousy. Excerpt: "Narrow in bounds, but wide in variety, the garden of Tilchington Rectory was one of the most beautiful in the South Country. It lay in a hollow, some four to five chains broad, down the middle of which ran a small and clear brook marked on the ordnance map as R. Tilch, but beloved of its riparians as, simply, our stream."

The human condition, the meaning of life, the nature of the universe -- it's all here in the musings of one of recent history's greatest philosophers ... Bart Simpson!

Coast-to-coast readers of more than 150 newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Constitution, Chicago Sun-Times, and Toronto Star share Fagan's view of this laugh-out-loud strip that deftly balances the tightrope of political correctness. Pardon My Planet: Omigawd! I've Become My Mother! represents the first collection of this uproarious cartoon that finds humor in all that makes us a little uncomfortable. Lee's razor wit is delivered through an array of seven recurring characters, each with their own off-kilter look at the world. In one panel, middle-aged suburbanites Dennis and Chloe learn from their Realtor that they may have found a home in their price range, but "unfortunately, there's a Scottish terrier named Rusty living in it." In another panel, while twentysomething roommates Jesse-Jane and Norris are dining out, Jesse-Jane asks the server how the chicken is prepared. The waiter dryly replies, "With no sugar-coating. We tell them right up front they're going to die." At times, the humor of Pardon My Planet is subtle but speaks to a deeper truth. Other times it is flat-out bizarre. This heady and hilarious collection captures it all, laying bare the annoyances and eccentricities of the inhabitants of our planet in this strip's unique and fresh way.