Come On, Bill Bailey!

Bill Bailey is one of my favourite stand up comedians and, unusually for me, I was aware of him quite early.  Not right at the beginning, but put it this way, the first time I saw him it was in a decent city-centre venue and it only cost me £12.50. Now he's filling stadia, those tickets would cost over £90, and he's presenting great TV programmes left, right and centre! As a fan of his work and knowing he's a Westcountry lad, his book 'My Animals and Other Animals: A Memoir of Sorts' immediately got my attention.

'George: A Magpie Memoir' by Frieda Hughes

As I write this, I can hear a wood pigeon, a couple of sparrows and a blackbird. To be fair, everything's a bit quiet out there at the moment. When there's food and fresh water to be had, it's the bird equivalent of central Paris at rush hour, only instead of cars and tourists it's feathery fliers zooming about all over the place. The enormous corvids sit at the top of the pecking order - jackdaws, crows, rooks and, of course, magpies. Familiar yet enigmatic, I already wanted to know more about these intriguing birds when I heard about 'George: A Magpie Memoir' by Frieda Hughes.

Simply Wander-Full!

Ah, the glorious days of summer are upon us!  Which is why I've been hiding indoors, listening to the audiobook version of '21st Century Yokel' by music journalist and writer Tom Cox.  Well, you don't want me getting sunburnt, do you?

Released by the innovative, crowd-fund publisher Unbound, '21st Century Yokel' is as genre-defying as it is lovely.  Part-memoir, part-travel book and part ode to the British landscape, it meanders through tales of creatures and countryside, family and folklore to weave a charming narrative that you just want to wrap yourself up in.  Cox uses gorgeous, lyrical language to capture the important places, pets and people in his life with humour and optimism.  From his native Nottinghamshire, via Devon, Derbyshire and Norfolk, '21st Century Yokel' takes the reader on journey that is both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply thoughtful, but never, ever dull - especially if his Mr Cox Senior is around.