Showing results by publisher "HarperCollins" in Comedy & Humour

In a small pocket of the city, between the houses of No.77 and No.79 on Eastbourne Road, there’s a neglected community garden. Once vibrant and welcoming, and a sanctuary for the people when they needed it most, the garden’s gate is firmly closed. But it only takes a small seed of an idea for big changes to happen. And as the neighbours’ need for connection grows, the twilight garden comes out of hibernation.

Prickly. Stubborn. Terribly lonely. But everyone deserves a second chance. Missy Carmichael’s life has become small. Grieving for a family she has lost or lost touch with, she’s haunted by the echoes of her footsteps in her empty home; the sound of the radio in the dark; the tick-tick-tick of the watching clock. Spiky and defensive, Missy knows that her loneliness is all her own fault. She deserves no more than this; not after what she’s done. But a chance encounter in the park with two very different women opens the door to something new.

Chiltern boards the 23:50 sleeper train from London to Edinburgh with two pork pies, six beers and a packet of chocolate digestives. At 23:55 he sends a message to all 158 people in his contacts, telling them that he plans to end his life in the morning. He then switches his phone to flight mode. He’s said goodbye. To him, it’s the end of his story - and time to crack open the biscuits. But across the world, 158 phones are lighting up with a notification. 

Lucie Yi has tried love—it didn’t work. She’s decided that finding Mr Right is a myth, and that finding Mr Right-enough-to-have-children-with is the next best option. So when she meets easy-going Collin Read on a platonic co-parenting website, it finally feels like she has found her version of happily-ever-after. But things take a turn for the worse when they move back home to Singapore where her very traditional family and remorseful ex-fiancé await.

Tara Gallagher is knackered. She used to dream of being Beyoncé, but suddenly she’s 36—with three kids, a loving husband, a very boring job—and instead of headlining Glastonbury, she’s in her pyjamas on a Friday night, watching Gogglebox. It’s time for a mammy makeover. She’s going to show her teenage daughter she’s still cool. She’s going to show her husband she’s still an absolute ride. She’s going to show her colleagues she’s still a boss bish.

MEET LINDA. Linda lives a nice, normal life, on a nice, normal street with Terry, her perfectly ordinary husband. Linda’s not like everyone else, she keeps herself to herself. But she’s good at solving puzzles and there are times she sees things other people might have overlooked. Because nothing on Cavendish Avenue is quite as it seems. People have started to go missing in the neighbourhood and Linda will soon discover that some secrets can’t stay buried forever…

Life in Pieces is a book for anyone who’s been thrown into a life they didn’t plan or who just wants to stick it to 2020. When it looks like everything’s falling apart, we’ll piece it back together. From reflections on grief and identity, bad hair and parenting, sleep and spirituality, to the things we can control and the things we cannot, Dawn has been doing a lot of thinking about life in lockdown. Mostly from a cupboard. Discover the daily diaries that track the journey - for a hilarious, heartbreaking and highly entertaining glimpse into the new normal.

Jenny is unloved, unemployable and emotionally unfiltered. Her long-suffering friends seem sick of her, and whilst her social media portrays her life as a bed of roses, it is more of a dying succulent. Adults is what you want it to be. A misadventure of maturity, a satire on our age of self-promotion, a tender look at the impossibility of womanhood, a love story, a riot. And Emma Jane Unsworth is the only voice to hear it from. Adults is excruciating, a gut punch of hilarity and an audiobook laden with truth that you will listen to again and again.

The British comedian of Nigerian heritage and co-executive producer and writer of the CBS hit series Bob Hearts Abishola chronicles her odyssey to get to America and break into Hollywood in this lively and humorous memoir. According to family superstition, Gina Yashere was born to fulfill the dreams of her grandmother Patience. The powerful first wife of a wealthy businessman, Patience was poisoned by her jealous sister-wives and marked with a spot on her neck. From birth, Gina carried a similar birthmark - a sign that she was her grandmother’s chosen heir.

How much of your life do you review? Books, TV, film, music – the reviewable things? Ever tried going a little further, reviewing the intangibles, the abstract, the ‘weird’: a houseplant; the sunlight on the pavement on a crisp spring day; being embarrassed; that strange wave you do at cars when they slow down at zebra crossings. A dead houseplant. From almond croissants to the concept of life itself, Joel Golby embarks on a journey through modern living, leaving no stone unturned – no one thing unreviewed – to consider what it all really means.

One day, NICK and BEE cross paths over a misdirected email. The connection is instant, electric, they feel like they’ve known each other forever. Nick buys a new suit, gets on a train. Bee steadies her nerves, gets a pep talk from her best friend Leila. This is it. Except it isn’t. Because as they prepare to meet under the clock at Euston station, the universe throws in a twist you’d never see coming . . .

Meet Tom. Or Dr O’Grady, as he used to be called. When you pass him on the street, most people don’t even give him a second glance. You see, Tom isn’t living his best life. Burdened by grief, he’s only got his loyal dog, Bette Davis, for company and a rucksack containing his whole world. Then there’s Ruth and her son, DJ, who no longer have a place to call home. But Ruth believes that you can change the world by helping one person at a time - and Tom needs her help. There are a thousand ways to find your home - you just need to be brave enough to look for them.

Ellen Russell embarks on the Ultimate Summer —two whole months without the stifling confines of work drudgery, school runs, or juggling the household's never-ending demands. This year promises the idyllic, laughter-filled summer of her dreams with her best friend, Hannah, and their Precious Moppets. But can a summer filled with wicker picnic hampers, vintage bicycles, and a sun-kissed trip to the in-laws' almost-chateau truly live up to The Vision?

Private McAuslan, J.—the Dirtiest Soldier in the World (alias the Tartan Caliban)—demonstrates his unfitness for military service in this first volume of stories of life in a Scottish regiment. Unkempt, ungainly and unwashed, civilian listeners may regard him with shocked disbelief. But generations of ex-servicemen have hailed him with delight as a familiar friend—because every old soldier can remember a McAuslan!

When Marianne’s carefully constructed life and marriage fall apart, she is forced to return to Ancaire, the ramshackle seaside house perched high on a cliff by the Irish Sea. There she must rebuild her relationship with her mother, Rita, a flamboyant artist and recovering alcoholic who lives by her own rules. Marianne left home when she was 15 following a traumatic and tragic incident. She never planned to return, and now she has to face the fact that some plans don’t work out the way you wanted them to.

Self-deprecating and with an acerbic wit, TikTok star Clara Batten aka @rabatts is every middle-class mother trying to get through the day without another sh*t on the staircase or panic drive to McDonald’s. In Gin and Phonics, she talks candidly about the ups, downs and hilarious reality of trying to parent two small people and fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming an actress without losing her bl**dy mind.

In Ruck Me!, James sets out on a voyage of self-discovery speaking to ex-colleagues, friends and family, reflecting on his career and diving into some of his most memorable personal anecdotes to date. But what started out as a search for understanding and meaning soon turns into a - let’s face it, sometimes warranted - chastisement opportunity with James directly in the firing line. Turns out he has a lot of work to do....

Corazon, Angel and Donita have all come to Singapore to work for a living. The thing that unites them? Their labour must remain unseen. But when a friend is accused of murdering her employer, everything changes. The accused could be any of them; they all know the stories of women who were scapegoated or even executed for crimes they didn’t commit. Each woman has secrets to keep, yet they must gather every ounce of bravery, fearlessness and complete audacity to clear the name of one of their own.

Harry Silver has it all. A successful job in TV, a gorgeous wife, a lovely child. But in one moment of madness, he chucks it all away. A modern classic, Man and Boy is a hilarious and touching novel about how Harry comes to terms with his life, brings up his son alone and, gradually, learns what words like love and family really mean.

As one of the biggest parenting stars on social media, mother-of-three Louise Boyce knows a thing or two about navigating the craziness of family life. Now Louise shares her expertise in Mama Still Got It, a hurtling gallop through the ‘real’ parenting calendar. From drop-kicking the kids through the school gates in September, to the perils of using a public loo with your toddler, via the existential dread of an unexpected nursery call to tell you ‘there’s nothing to worry about’ (sure), this book covers all the highs and lows of modern motherhood.