Here are 55 books that Jeeves & Wooster fans have personally recommended once you finish the Jeeves & Wooster series.
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I am a historian of the Nazi occupation of France during the Second World War and the author of two books about the period. My book about the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre (Silent Village) was published in French this year, and as a result, I was interviewed live on French television. I am fascinated by history from the ground up, and I love revealing the stories of ordinary people whose contributions have been under-represented. My current PhD research focuses on the Resistance in rural French villages, interpreted through a series of micro-histories. I also adore historical fiction. I have a master's degree from Cardiff University and a BA joint Hons from the University of Exeter.
Sebastian Faulks' trilogy of books set in wartime France prompted me to become a historian of the Nazi Occupation of France. Not only is Faulks' prose always utterly engaging, but he is also a master storyteller. The historical detail in it is worn lightly, yet it all feeds into the building of a world that feels real and beautiful, yet terrifying.Â
I love historical fiction, and this novel helped me understand a time and place that fascinated me. It presents choices that ordinary people had to make in extraordinary times not that long ago. I felt I was shoulder to shoulder with the main character, and the book made me wonder what I would have done. What would my choices have been, and would I have been so brave?
A remarkable story of a Scottish woman in Occupied France pursuing a perilous mission of her own
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER BIRDSONG
In 1942, Charlotte Gray, a young Scottish woman, heads for Occupied France on a dual mission - officially, to run an apparently simple errand for a British special operations group and unofficially, to search for her lover, an English airman missing in action. She travels to the village of Lavaurette, dyeing her hair and changing her name to conceal her identity. As the people in the small town prepare to meet their terrible destiny, CharlotteâŚ
I am Peter C. Bradbury, and it was reading the books of P.G. Wodehouse that attracted me to the career of being a butler. I have also always loved murder mysteries, so when I started writing, I combined those aspects into my first book. I chose these particular books because of the details and the subjects. I was a butler for over twenty years in the UK and the USA, and it annoys me when household staff are incorrectly portrayed. I love movies like Gosford Park and series like Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey. The butler sees and hears everything, so I like the writers who know that.
It is absolutely essential reading if you want to be a traditional butler. Most butlers nowadays are more of a personal assistant, but there is still a demand for the more traditional role. This book explains the duties that I used to do and gives me references for those that would crop up from time to time. I really recommend this book as a butlerâs bible!
Perched on an island off the shores of Cornwall, England, the soaring castle of St. Michaelâs Mount has been home to the St. Aubyn family since 1647. For nearly thirty years, Stanley Ager, one of the most esteemed butlers of the twentieth century, ensured that St. Michaelâs Mount was an impeccable place to live and a gracious and welcoming one for guests to visit.
Revered by everyone from royalty to the estate staff, Stanley Ager considered it his calling to run a home gracefully and efficiently. Several of the men whom he trained at St. Michaelâs Mount went on toâŚ
I learnt to read at about the age of three or four and have been devouring books ever since. However, it took a few decades for me to begin creating my own stories. I have a passion for writing and whenever I can, I try to help new writers improve their expertise. Iâm a strong believer in writing groups, for that reason. My first book, born from a few-hundred-word short story at my writing group, turned into a three-book thriller series. Since then Iâve branched out by publishing a rom/com, a humorous ghost story as well as a standalone thriller.
By the time I learnt to read, Enid Blyton had already written six or seven childrenâs books. One of my early reads was likely to have been this one, the original adventure. Eventually, I read them all.
I learnt the characters so well; their looks and personalities, they were embedded in my mind until the next book â and the remaining nineteen! So clear were their identities, my friends and I were able to re-enact the Fiveâs escapades taking the roles of the siblings and cousin.Â
Although some of her writing comes in for criticism these days (from adults), itâs for things that went unnoticed by the average child swept along by the bookâs adventures.
In my writing I work hard to create memorable characters and Iâm always delighted when they are mentioned by readers.
Meet Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timothy. Together they are THE FAMOUS FIVE - Enid Blyton's most popular adventure series. All 21 titles also available as audiobooks!
'There was something else out on the sea by the rocks - something dark that seemed to lurch out of the waves . . . What could it be?'
Julian, Dick and Anne are spending the holidays with their tomboy cousin George and her dog, Timothy. One day, George takes them to explore nearby Kirrin Island, with its rocky little coast and old ruined castle on the top.
As a nonfiction author, Iâve always been mystified by fictional character development. What qualities make one character fascinating and another a dud? How do great writers make us fall in love with their creations? If I had one wish as an author, it would be to create one truly beloved character. I particularly like quirky nonconformists who forge their own paths, making mistakes along the way, yet they remain sympathetic. When I finish reading the story, I miss their company. My five recommended books include some of my favorite characters in modern literature.
I thought this book (another by the king of quirk, Backman) was hysterical. The relationship between the precocious seven-year-old main character, Elsa, and her nutty grandmother is laugh-out-loud funny yet poignant.
I also liked that the story included a bit of magical realism, so I was never quite sure what would happen next.
A must-read for fans of Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, BernadetteHeartbreaking and hilarious in equal measure, by the author of the New York Times bestselling phenomenon A Man Called Ove will charm and delight anyone who has ever had a grandmother. Everyone remembers the smell of their grandmother's house. Everyone remembers the stories their grandmother told them.But does everyone remember their grandmother flirting with policemen? Driving illegally?Breaking into a zoo in the middle of the night? Firing a paintball gun from a balcony in her dressing gown?Seven-year-old Elsa does.Some might callâŚ
My writing life is a mixture. I have written novels of crime fiction, many featuring Sherlock Holmes, as well as a variety of sleuths of my own creation. I was editor of the monthly journal of the Crime Writersâ Association for twenty years and have written several plays, non-fiction books as well introductions to numerous literary collections. While I admit that my writings veer towards the serious and dramatic, in my social life I think of myself as a light-hearted fellow and as an antidote to my own dark fiction I enjoy having my spirits lifted by witty and amusing tales that help to raise the spirits.
If you know of Gyles Brandreth, the writer, broadcaster, and polymath you will know what to expect from any work of his. Subtitled The Diary of a Lifetime it contains extracts from his diaries from 1959 to the year 2000. It is a wonderful book to dip into, one that is full of enthusiasm and positivity. It is quite amazing the number of famous people that Brandreth has encountered over the yearsânot just names from showbusiness but artists, writers, politicians, sportspeople, and royalty. The book is stuffed with anecdotes most of which are highly amusing and are often presented in a self-deprecating manner.
This is a diary packed with famous names and extraordinary stories. It is also rich in incidental detail and wonderful observation, providing both a compelling record of five remarkable decades and a revealing, often hilarious and sometimes moving account of Gyles Brandreth's unusual life -- as a child living in London in the 'swinging' sixties, as a jumper-wearing TV presenter, as an MP and government whip, and as a royal biographer who has enjoyed unique access to the Queen and her family. Something Sensational to Read on the Train takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride from the era ofâŚ
Iâve been teaching âWriting Humor and Comedyâ at Drexel University (where Iâm an English professor) twice a year forever, and Iâm proud (and still a little awed) that at least one of my students has gone on to have a successful humor-writing career. My very first publication was a satirical story back in 1996, and in more recent years, my humor has been published in The Oxford University Press Humor Reader, McSweeneyâs, and Points in Case. Writing funny fiction is my main focus as a novelist, and my sequel, The Great American Betrayal, was named one of "The Best Comedy Books of 2022" by New York magazine's Vulture.com.
I first read Stanislaw Lemâs The Futurological Congress in a literature of science fiction course as an undergrad around 1991 and Iâve reread it a bunch of times since then. Lemâs endlessly creative wordplay and brilliant satirical style have been major influences on all of my fiction, especially the Great American series. His novel might seem less like an overt haha comedy than the others Iâve listed here, but I still laugh every time I read it. Sample sentence: âStill, the sight of a man at your side crumpling to the floor under heavy fire is not among the most pleasant, even if it is the result of a simple misunderstanding, which ends with an exchange of diplomatic notes and official apologies.â
'A giant of twentieth-century science fiction' Guardian
'This Room Guaranteed BOMB-FREE. From the Management'
Hapless cosmonaut Ijon Tichy has been sent back to earth to attend the Eighth Futurological Congress in smog-bound, overpopulated Costa Rica, holed up with an assortment of scientists in a luxury hotel (fully equipped with tear gas sprinklers in case things get out of hand). But when an unfortunate incident occurs involving a revolution and hallucinogenic drugs in the water supply, Tichy finds himself shot, frozen and thawed out in a future beyond anything he could ever have imagined.
Iâve been teaching âWriting Humor and Comedyâ at Drexel University (where Iâm an English professor) twice a year forever, and Iâm proud (and still a little awed) that at least one of my students has gone on to have a successful humor-writing career. My very first publication was a satirical story back in 1996, and in more recent years, my humor has been published in The Oxford University Press Humor Reader, McSweeneyâs, and Points in Case. Writing funny fiction is my main focus as a novelist, and my sequel, The Great American Betrayal, was named one of "The Best Comedy Books of 2022" by New York magazine's Vulture.com.
You might know Hugh Laurie as the actor who played Dr. Gregory House in House,though heâs been great in lots of other stuff, including playing Bertie Wooster in Jeeves and Wooster. Heâs also a hell of a writer. The Gun Sellerhas the pacing of a spy novel and the sentences you might expect if P.G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler went into that gene-combining teleportation portal from The Flyand emerged as P.G. Chandlerhouse. Sample sentence: âBut Rayner was also three inches taller than me, four stones heavier, and at least eight however-you-measure-violence units more violent.â
When Thomas Lang, a hired gunman with a soft heart, is contracted to assassinate an American industrialist, he opts instead to warn the intended victim - a good deed that doesn't go unpunished.
Within hours Lang is butting heads with a Buddha statue, matching wits with evil billionaires, and putting his life (among other things) in the hands of a bevy of femmes fatales, whilst trying to save a beautiful lady ... and prevent an international bloodbath to boot.
A wonderfully funny novel from one of Britain's most famous comedians and star of award-winning US TV medical drama series, House.
Iâve been teaching âWriting Humor and Comedyâ at Drexel University (where Iâm an English professor) twice a year forever, and Iâm proud (and still a little awed) that at least one of my students has gone on to have a successful humor-writing career. My very first publication was a satirical story back in 1996, and in more recent years, my humor has been published in The Oxford University Press Humor Reader, McSweeneyâs, and Points in Case. Writing funny fiction is my main focus as a novelist, and my sequel, The Great American Betrayal, was named one of "The Best Comedy Books of 2022" by New York magazine's Vulture.com.
Dave Barry is most famous as a humor columnist and nonfiction writer. His first novel Big Trouble, with a story that reads like a suspenseful thriller, is full of comedic events and clever twists. Itâs worth reading, however, for the prose alone. Sample sentence: âEn route to the polling place, the old man picked up seven other voters, all men, some quite aromatic.â
Dave Barry makes his fiction debut with a ferociously funny novel of love and mayhem in south Florida.
In the city of Coconut Grove, Florida, these things happen: A struggling adman named Eliot Arnold drives home from a meeting with the Client From Hell. His teenage son, Matt, fills a Squirtmaster 9000 for his turn at a high school game called Killer. Matt's intended victim, Jenny Herk, sits down in front of the TV with her mom for what she hopes will be a peaceful evening for once. Jenny's alcoholic and secretly embezzling stepfather, Arthur, emerges from the maid's room,âŚ
I fell in love with speculative fiction in high school (1967) when I found LOTR collecting dust on a library shelf in San Marcos, Texas. I majored in philosophy in college, which required a high degree of speculative imagination. Some might call my philosophizing bullshit, but seriously, itâs the only academic field that takes zombies seriously. I taught visual and multimedia design at Austin Community College, helping students commit their imaginations to realized projects. Love in the Ruins inspired me to write three speculative novels and dozens of published short stories.
I read this book every year. In my opinion, Walker Percy, along with Flannery OâConnor, is the premiere southern novelist of the last half of the 20th Century. I consider it one of the finest novels written and an example of the plotting, character development, use of language, and religious parody to which young novelists should aspire.
Percyâs novel blends Southern Gothic, science fiction, and comedy to create a world in which the racial divide in New Orleans blossoms into an apocalypse with hilarious and unpredictable results.
A pair of profound dystopian novels from the âbrilliantly breathtakingâ New York Timesâbestselling and National Book Awardâwinning author of The Moviegoer (The New York Times Book Review).  Winner of the National Book Award for The Moviegoer, the âdazzlingly giftedâ Southern philosophical author Walker Percy wrote two vividly imagined satirical novels of Americaâs future featuring deeply flawed psychiatrist and spiritual seeker Tom More (USA Today). Love in the Ruins is âa great adventure . . . so outrageous and so real, one is left speechlessâ (Chicago Sun-Times), and its sequel The Thanatos Syndrome âshimmers with intelligence and verveâ (Newsday).  Love inâŚ
Iâm the author of The Dirty Parts of the Bible, which has
been a #1 Kindle bestseller in Humorous Literary Fiction on several occasions. In school, I hated the sorts of novels we were assigned. Unable to connect
with them, I read Cliffâs Notes instead. Then we were given The Catcher in the Rye. It was a
revelationâliterature can be relatable, engaging, and funny?! The next novel to grab me this way was The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. Like Catcher, it was gritty and often dark,
addressing serious concernsâbut it did so with humor. These books were
my gateway into enjoying fictionâand, ultimately, to writing my own story in
the same category of serious-yet-funny.
This is a little-known gem by three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thornton Wilder (best known for his play Our Town). Published in the 1935, itâs a contemporaneous account of Depression-era America, following the misadventures of traveling salesman and religious zealot, George Brush.
Coming off as preachy and self-righteous, George sparks ire and outrage wherever he goes. Yet, heâs a sincere and decent person. At the end of his misadventures, George is humbled and begins to broaden his views, making him a complex, sympathetic character.
Though renowned during his lifetime, Wilder has been largely forgotten in favor of flashier contemporaries. All of his works are worth rediscovering, but Heavenâs My Destination is closest to my heart as it was a major inspiration for my own book.
The law of contract is ripe for feminist analysis. Despite increasing calls for the re-conceptualisation of neo-classical ways of thinking, feminist perspectives on contract tend to be marginalised in mainstream textbooks. This edited collection questions the assumptions made in such works and the ideologies that underpin them, drawing attention to the ways in which the law of contract has facilitated the virtual exclusion of women, the feminine and the private sphere from legal discourse.
Contributors to this volume offer a range of ways of thinking about the subject and cover topics such as the feminine offeree, feminist perspectives on contractsâŚ
