AS READ ON RADIO 4 'Manages to find joy in the trivial and creates farce out of monotony . . . To say that a book has 'changed your life' has become so commonplace that it has become almost meaningless. Nonetheless, I think that in this case, it is probably true' JONATHAN COE From the bestselling author of Going Gently and the hugely successful autobiography I Didn't Get Where I Am Today Reginald Iolanthe Perrin is sick to death with selling exotic ices at Sunshine Desserts. He's fed up with his boss C.J. who delights in making his life hell. And he's had enough of his eager young assistants who think everything is 'super'. So begins Reggie's battle against consumerism. Driven to desperation by the rat race and the unpunctuality of Britain's trains, Reggie's small eccentricities escalate to the extreme. Until, finally, he leaves behind the unacceptable face of capitalism altogether. Driven off in a motorised jelly, and creating the world's biggest loganberry slick on his way, he dumps his clothes on a Dorset beach and sets off for new adventures . . .

Reginald Iolanthe Perrin is surely one of the best loved comedy heroes of our time, in both literature and television. This omnibus brings together the first three Reginald Perrin novels containing a lifetime's outrageous and hilarious adventures. When we first meet Reggie, he is sick to death with selling exotic ices at Sunshine Desserts. Driven to desperation by the rat race and the unpunctuality of Britain's trains, Reggie's small eccentricites escalate to the extreme, until finally he leaves the unacceptable face of capitalism behind by driving off in a stolen motorised jelly. In his pursuit of the unconventional, he devotes himself to faking his own death, opening a shop devoted to selling completely useless goods, and setting up a commune strictly for the middle-class and middle-aged. Join Reggie, who didn't get where he is today without some help from some memorable supporting characters, in one man's quest to avoid an everyday existence.

*The fourth book of the classic comic series about the 'sweaty, charming, paunchy, sad, hilarious man' who faked his own death. First published in the late 1970s, the three previous books were made into an immensely popular BBC TV series starring Leonard Rossiter. *THE LEGACY OF REGINALD PERRIN is set in the present day, and Reggie is now REALLY dead. He's bequeathed vast sums of money to his family and old associates on the condition that each performs a really absurd act. Here is the return of all the favourite Perrin characters, whose hilarious catch-phrases have become by-words: Reggie's hopeless brother-in-law Jimmy ('Bit of a cock-up on the catering front'), and his old boss at Sunshine Desserts, C. J. ('I did'nt get where I am today by. . . ')

Kate Thomas was beautiful, intelligent, witty, passionate and sexy. Now, at the ripe old age of ninety-nine, she is trapped in a hospital ward of sad, mad and bad old women. She escapes by playing to herself the video of her life. What a life it has been. Her six marriages have ended in suicide, a husband's adultery, another husband's deportation as a dangerous alien, a union dispute, a murder, and a natural death. But Kate's journey through the twentieth century is also a search for the truth - about life, death, and which of her three sons murdered her fifth husband. This is a novel rich in memorable characters, from Kate's narrow but loving Welsh family to the wild members of an artists' colony in Cornwall; from Midland piston manufacturers to an investigative journalist whose own life cannot bear investigation.

This hilarious episode in the remarkable exploits of Reginald Iolanthe Perrin follows our hero on his most ambitious venture yet. Setting up a commune strictly for the middle-class and middle-aged, Reggie's therapy centre nurtures its clients, encouraging them to find the love and goodness that lurks deep inside. And he's gathered together the unlikeliest of staff to help him- including C.J. (for people's work problems), David Harris-Jones (handling their sex problems), plus Tony Webster (culture), his son-in-law Tom (sport) and Doc Morrissey (psychology). With a team like this, how can the indomitable, unconventional R.I.P. ever fail in his bid to create a Better World?

It is 1957. The Suez Crisis has been and gone. Henry Pratt has completed his National Service and is putting his unsuccessful career as Thurmarsh's cub journalist behind him. Leaving Yorkshire, he's taking on a new role and a new challenge - working for the Cucumber Marketing Board in Leeds. Stumbling through the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties, Henry Pratt accumulates jobs, marriages and children on the way as he embarks on a touching, painful and hilarious switchback ride through a divided Britain.

A brilliant novel about a woman determined to make a name for herself as a sitcom star in 1960's London from the bestselling author of Dickens and Prince, High Fidelity and About a Boy Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Funny Girl does what Nick Hornby does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process.