Showing results by publisher "Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd" in Comedy & Humour

Phryne Fisher is doing one of her favorite things -dancing at the Green Mill (Melbourne's premier dance hall) to the music of Tintagel Stone's Jazzmakers, the band who taught St Vitus how to dance. And she's wearing a sparkling lobelia-coloured georgette dress. Nothing can flap the unflappable Phryne -especially on a dance floor with so many delectable partners. Nothing except death, that is.

A great Australian yarn about a bold Australian outback adventure belonging to another time in another world, inspired by a true story. The happy routine life of two Perth boys is shattered one November day in 1950 when they are falsely accused of theft. With fabricated evidence mounting against them they decide to run away from their homes and families to avoid prosecution and pooling their meager pocket money they back the winner of the Melbourne Cup and fund an escape.

Comedy has been Shaun Micallef’s guiding light, his refuge, his passport, his lifebuoy, his drug, his mask, his means, his end, his lingua franca, his Self. But it’s not everything. Join Shaun on a journey from his earliest days as a gangly, bespectacled comedy nerd growing up on the mean streets of Adelaide to his rightful place today as a glittering star in Australia’s TV firmament. Though his road to success has not been without its failures – in fact, many, many failures – only a few of them can be blamed on others.

Peter Carey's brilliant, hilarious, Booker Prize-short-listed Illywhacker is the novel that first brought him to international attention. Herbert Badgery is vagabond and charlatan, aviator and car salesman, seducer and patriarch. He might very well be the embodiment of Australia's national character, especially in its fondness for tall stories and questionable history.

488 Rules for Life is not a self-help book, because it's not you who needs help, it's other people. Whether they're walking and texting, asphyxiating you on public transport with their noxious perfume cloud, or leaving one useless square of toilet paper on the roll, a lot of people just don't know the rules. But thanks to Kitty Flanagan's comprehensive guide to modern behaviour, our world will soon be a much better place.

More Rules for Life is the latest collection from comedian and rule-maker Kitty Flanagan. Following the success of her best seller, 488 Rules for Life, Kitty realised there was still a lot of work to be done. What if there were people who didn't know that you're supposed to take the lettuce off the sandwich before toasting it? Or that you should never make eye contact with someone while eating a banana? What if young people didn't realise that TikTok is not actually a job? And what about old men on ladders? Someone needs to tell those guys to get down.

In the latest book in the widely beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Precious Ramotswe takes on a case for a childhood acquaintance, but her inquiries will require an even more delicate touch than usual. Mma Ramotswe reconnects with an old friend who has been having problems with her daughter. Though Precious feels compelled to lend a hand, she discovers that getting involved in family affairs is always a delicate proposition.

They're a Weird Mob chronicles the hilarious attempts of an English-speaking Italian migrant coming to grips with the Australian way of life. It is also an insight into the importance of idiomatic language to the Australian people.

What if we all woke one day to discover that every act of generosity was followed, soon after, by an unexpected windfall? If theft or betrayal led to rapid calamity? Within minutes, the effects of instant karma would be felt by each one of us. Within hours it wouldn’t just be ordinary folks trying to figure out the new order—it would be everyone from the President down. Instant Karma is the story of that day. An extraordinary vision, and early adopters are quick to capitalise on the new dynamics while karma change deniers vehemently dig in their heels.

William McInnes' best-selling memoir, A Man's Got to Have a Hobby, takes us back to the long summer holidays of the 1960s and '70s and the last of the baby-boomer childhoods. William narrates with humour and affection about his family and especially his mum and dad, who talked to the TV set and enjoyed life in their house near the bay. William McInnes is a talented writer and a natural storyteller.

To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose; it is summer in Scotland Street (as it always is) and for the habitués of Edinburgh's favourite street some extraordinary adventures lie in waiting. For the impossibly vain Bruce Anderson - he of the clove-scented hair gel - it may finally be time to settle down, and surely it can only be a question of picking the lucky winner from the hordes of his admirers....

Red Dog is a West Australian, a lovable friendly red kelpie who found widespread fame as a result of his habit of travelling all over Western Australia, hitching rides over thousands of miles, settling in places for months at a time and adopting new families before heading off again to the next destination and another family – sometimes returning to say hello years later.

In the follow-up to My Italian Bulldozer, hapless food writer Paul Stewart once again finds himself trapped in a series of hilarious misunderstandings, this time facing off against the second worst restaurant in France. Paul Stewart has returned to Scotland to continue his successful career. His agent and girlfriend, Gloria, has arranged for him to write The Philosophy of Food in Six Easy Chapters, a project he relishes but that will have to be delivered in six months.

Rocked by a terrible accident, homeless Kelly needs to escape the cold streets of Glasgow. Maybe she doesn’t believe in serendipity, but a rare moment of kindness and a lost ring conspire to call her home. As Kelly vows to reunite the ring with its owner, she must return to the small town she fled so many years ago. On her journey from Glasgow to the south-west tip of Scotland, Kelly encounters ancient pilgrim routes, hostile humans, hippies, book lovers and a friendly dog.

These hilarious tales of urban terror reveal the dark truth hidden behind three seemingly innocent words - a phrase that you have seen a hundred times before but will never view in the same light again - WANTED TO SHARE. John Birmingham's rendering of a life in share houses will leave you laughing, cringing and reminiscing about your own brushes with the mad, bad residents of flat mate hell.

A collection of the funniest yarns and most colourful characters from the best-selling Great Australian Stories series, from beloved storyteller Bill 'Swampy' Marsh. Great Australian Outback Yarns captures the funniest tales from Swampy's many titles in one volume. The colourful characters are full of generosity, humour and a larrikin Aussie spirit. These true stories of life in remote and regional Australia from Australia's master storyteller will leave you grinning from ear to ear.

'It seemed like a good idea...at the time' - the lament of many a morning after. Rum, beer, scotch, wine, beer and more beer. For nearly 250 years Australian history has been punctuated with stories of booze and boozing. From Cook's voyages and the First Fleet to the Rum Rebellion, the mutiny of the 99th Regiment, the soldiers' riot of 1916, six o'clock closing and beyond, we've been a nation that likes a drink. With the eye of the master storyteller that he is, Jim Haynes has collected the best yarns, verses, stories and anecdotes of our boozy history.

When London editor Georgia Abbott comes to Sydney to work on Glow, a glossy woman's magazine, she has high hopes for a bright new start. Leaving behind a broken heart (her own) and a philandering ex-fiance, she's looking forward to immersing herself in the Tim Tam-eating sisterhood of woman's mags. Not to mention being whisked off into the dusty Australian sunset by a suntanned, Akubra-hatted fantasy man.

Richard Derrington is 28 and single. More single than he'd like to be. More single than he'd expected to be, and not coping well. Since Anna trashed him six months ago he's been trying to find his way again. He's doing his job badly, he's playing tennis badly, his renovating attempts haven't got past the veranda, and he's wondering when things are going to change. Zigzag Street covers six weeks of Richard's life in Brisbane's Red Hill. Six weeks of rumination, chaos, poor judgement, interpersonal clumsiness...and, eventually, hope.

Lainey Byrne is a woman in control, juggling a hectic job; her boyfriend, Adam; and a family with more than its fair share of dramas. Things go into a spin when she is wrenched from her life in Melbourne to run a B&B in Ireland for a year. Bed-and-breakfast quickly tumbles into bed-and-bedlam, especially when a reunion with childhood friend Rohan Hartigan sparks an unexpected romantic dilemma.