English Storytelling

Loving or aloof, mischievous or cuddly - for many people, their cats are an integral part of the family. Here are extraordinary stories of some of the world’s most charismatic and captivating cats.

Arthur Smith is a "national treasure", extremely well-loved, with more than 45K Twitter followers. An anthology of Arthur Smith’s uniquely varied written work, this is Arthur's first book for many years. 100 Things I Meant to Tell You brings together 100 stories, poems, and articles gathered over a colourful lifetime making a living on the comedy circuit.

Kathy Thorson Gruhn grew up in the small town of Blooming Prairie in southern Minnesota. She moved to the South with her husband in the late '70s and currently lives on a horse farm in Tryon, North Carolina. She has two grown daughters and two grandchildren. Before becoming a writer, she was a speech pathologist for 35 years, working primarily with children ages birth to seven, which prompted her to create the My Baby Compass program.

I Was in Love with a Short Man Once is a collection of stories written from the perspective of a crazy Southern Irish gal. Follow her as she reflects on growing up as a child of limited means in South Florida; managing a self-financed college education; balancing work as a federal official with the demands of single motherhood; and navigating the amusing challenges of being a second-time-around wife.

Have you ever wondered how long it takes to digest chewing gum? What hiccups are for? Whether it's safe to fly with breast implants? Taking in everything from the outrageous (yes, Hitler was addicted to crystal meth) to the eye-watering (such as the renowned surgeon who accidentally cut off his patient's left testicle) to the downright disgusting (like the cure for toothache used by the Egyptians involving dead mouse paste), this book proves that medical science is not for the faint-hearted, lily-livered, or weak-stomached!

LA is a beast. A city that swallows most with its glamour and glitz. Not Sarah Fuller though. Stubborn and relentless, Sarah refuses to be changed by her surroundings. Often, she takes a cynical approach, judging the world around her, though never taking anything too seriously. Thrown back into the dating arena in her late 30s, Sarah encounters brand-new challenges. Listeners will laugh out loud at the adventures and mishaps this sassy protagonist gets herself into. She explores LA life, seeing it through her unique lens.

From his first interactions with “The Mob” in his early childhood and his nightmarish life with his father until he was on his own at 15 years of age through his marriages and how he became one of the best and most famous stand-up comedians of his time, Kip Addotta tells all. He names names and details the how-to and fine-tuning of comedy.

The New York Times best-selling mother-daughter duo is back with more hilarious, witty, and true tales from their lives. Whether they are attempting to hike the Grand Canyon, setting up phone calls with their dogs, or learning what “adulting” means, Lisa and Francesca are guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, and appreciate the funniest moments in life. Like the perfect glass of rosé, they’re always here to help you escape from your own busy, modern life and instead, get lost in theirs.

Comedian Shawn Hitchins explores his irreverent nature in this debut collection of essays. Hitchins doesn’t shy away from his failures or celebrate his mild successes - he sacrifices them for an audience’s amusement. Nothing is sacred. His first major break-up, how his mother plotted the murder of the family cat, his difficult relationship with his father, becoming an unintentional spokesperson for all redheads, and many more.

If the first six months of running the Smugglers Tavern had been a baptism of fire, the subsequent years were about as much fun as bobbing for apples in a vat of acid. Having swapped the tin roof of a cold British fish market for the sunny skies of a Spanish holiday island, Joe and Joy succeeded in thwarting the first wave of attacks from bungling bureaucrats, bewildered holidaymakers, and their own spectacular ineptitude. What they didn't realize was that their enemies were regrouping. Not only that, but those enemies had made camp a lot closer to home.

Part improvisation, part audio cartoon, The Camp Waterlogg Chronicles 6 is a collection of variety show productions, created by two radio-theater veterans. The Camp WaterloggChronicles 6 contains six one-hour segments of the comic misadventures of Sergeant Lefty, Olive Pitts, Ellis the Boatkeeper, Squeaky Lkie, Stinky Peter, Mrs.Terwilliger, and all the wacky denizens of Camp Waterlogg, the dilapidated camp for kids in the Catskills.

Submarines glide along on their dangerous missions, their crews performing difficult tasks under arduous conditions. The mystique associated with these boats is evidenced by the number of movies and television shows dedicated to the subject. But nowhere else will you find the lighter side of submarine operations - childish pranks, retrieving lost sailors, and even humorous episodes involving the father of the nuclear Navy, Admiral Rickover.

Trailer Dogs is the profoundly profane, hysterically funny, yet often poignant, story of survival in today's near-extinct middle class. After losing their small business and life savings to the government's unfathomable shutdown, the author and her husband are forced to sell their home and move into a travel trailer.

Goin' Postal tells the story of a real U.S. postal worker dealing with crazy situations that the public never sees. From human heads in the mail to alligators on the loose in the building, this book is sure to make you laugh. The second book in this combo, The Creek, tells stories set in the same location, but each story is set in a different time period. The last story depicts how the people and stories of the past are still alive today.

The Camp Waterlogg Chronicles 8 contains six one-hour segments of the comic misadventures of Sergeant Lefty, Olive Pitts, Ellis the Boatkeeper, Squeaky Lkie, Stinky Peter, Mrs. Terwilliger, and all the wacky denizens of Camp Waterlogg, the dilapidated camp for kids in the Catskills. The creation of husband and wife team Joe Bevilacqua (Joe Bev) and Lorie Kellogg, The Comedy-O-Rama Hour has evolved into a wacky mix of family friendly humor, radio theater, audio cartoons, and improvisation.

The author of Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me and That's Mr. Faggot to You returns with more skewed observations on the strange state of the queer union. As fans of his previous collections have happily discovered, little escapes his attention, and no topic is too controversial or sacred to be tackled.

I tell the true stories of how Joe Walsh and I became friends, from the James Gang to the Eagles with Barnstorm in between. There were many obstacles to overcome in meeting Joe, but a path was laid before me by an LSD premonition I had when I was a teenager. You will believe in it, as I most certainly do.

In all my years of reporting on the human condition, this has to be the most bizarre, and (if true) history shattering interviews I've ever conducted. This story is told by Billy "Big Rig", a pseudonymous truck driver I met over sausage gravy and biscuits in the late 1990s when I was driving a truck to make ends meet. We struck up a friendship, although I think I maybe spoke 10 words to him the whole time I knew him. He did most of the talking. And the way he spun a yarn caused me to be transfixed.

That's Mr. Faggot to You continues Ford's exploration of contemporary gay life. He does not shy away from personal revelations - he recalls his own traumatic high school experiences but recognizes that, years later, he's happier and, more importantly, a great deal more attractive than his classmates - but also offers insight into more political issues such as religion and politics and Wynonna Judd. Never abandoning his caustic wit, Ford is honest to a fault and does not suffer fools or dog-haters lightly.

In What Would Susie Say?, Susie Essman sheds the crasser layers to reveal how she went from an anxiety-ridden, struggling stand-up comic to being one of the funniest women on television, playing Susie Greene on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm.