Showing results by publisher "HarperCollins" in Comedy & Humour

From reflecting on his early years at his local pitch and putt to his stellar career playing against the best of the best on the greatest courses on the planet, Golf is Hard takes you inside the world of professional golf like no book before it, sharing side-splitting and painfully honest stories of life behind the scenes as a tour pro.

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! 

Private McAuslan was ‘the biggest walking disaster to hit the army’. Loosely based on his own experiences in a Scottish regiment, and written with rare humour, a sense of the ludicrous and real affection for soldiering, the second volume of George MacDonald Fraser’s McAuslan trilogy now finally comes to life on audio. Private McAuslan, J.—the Dirtiest Soldier in the World (alias the Tartan Caliban)—will be joyfully familiar to listeners of The General Danced at Dawn, the first volume of George MacDonald Fraser’s stories of life in a Scottish regiment. 

Greta Gale has played the part of the funny fat one her entire life, hiding her insecurities behind a big smile. But size doesn’t matter when you can laugh at yourself, right? Until Greta realises she’s the only one not laughing. And deep down, she’s not sure if she’ll ever laugh again. But with her world feeling like it’s falling down around her, Greta is about to discover she’s stronger than she feels. And that sometimes the best moments in life come when it’s all gone a bit pear-shaped.... 

A love letter to the small but mighty dachshund or, as it’s more affectionally known, the Sausage Dog. This audiobook - almost as adorable as its namesake - proves that sausage dogs are not just sweet, soft and a little bit silly to look at. They can be an example to us all. Despite having the odds stacked against it, this little pooch can turn any situation to its advantage. It’s the underdog that always comes out on top, displaying remarkable resilience, tenacity and bravery at every turn. 

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.

Claire’s family has gone nuclear. Her precious moppets keep calling Childline when she feeds them broccoli, she’s utterly Ottolenghied out at weekends and her darling husband is having an affair with her best friend. The question isn’t whether she needs a glass of wine, but is there one big enough? Enter the Sauvignon Sisterhood, a new set of friends brought together by a shared love of liquid therapy. Together they might just be able to convince Claire that, like a good bottle of red, life really can get better with age.

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 . . .

The social season is upon us! And whether you marriage-minded misses shall be considered a diamond or a doorstop shall soon be determined. But panic not, dear ladies, for you shall find all the advice you so desperately need within these minutes. Receive instruction on how to perfect the feigned swoon; the optimal height your breasts can be squashed to; just how many feathers in your headdress is too many; and why you should never enter a maze at night unaccompanied (unless you’re sure to be compromised by a sexy duke and forced into marrying him).

Falling in love is a beautiful thing. The internet, naturally, has taken this beauty and turned it into something deeply, deeply strange. Featuring screenshots from real-life dating conversations, Is This Love or Dopamine? is a hilarious, piercing analysis of the weird-and-not-so-wonderful world of internet dating. @beam_me_up_softboi creator and journalist Iona David explores all the highs, horrors and heartbreaks: from the all-important first DM slide to the inevitable eventual ghosting.

Who is the Secret Royal? Some say they’re a disgruntled courtier; others that it’s King Charles’ Head of Pens. Perhaps it’s just the Countess of Wessex (as you’ll see they do appear to be close to the late Queen). But then they do have the same cadence as Camilla... Whoever it is they’ve written a rip-roaring diary of 18 months behind the Palace walls, during one of the most tumultuous periods of The Firm’s existence.

Tuesday Mooney loves a puzzle. So when an eccentric billionaire drops dead, leaving behind a fiendish treasure hunt - open to anyone - to his fortune, Tuesday can’t resist. Although she works best alone, she soon finds herself partnering up with best friend Dex (money manager by day, karaoke zealot by night) and the mysterious Nathaniel Arches, eldest son of a wealthy family who held a long-running feud with the dead man. 

From Brexit to Covid, parties to pig culling, the Conservative government has lurched from crisis to crisis. With a front-row seat on the, erm, backbenches, the Secret Tory has picked up on all the petty rivalries, bad decision-making and scandalous affairs that Whitehall has to offer. And he’s got no qualms about sharing it. All. Join the mystery MP as he drunk-texts Liz Truss after a crate of WKD, accompanies Jacob Rees-Mogg (and his kids) to picket a foodbank, takes on the French in the ‘Trawler Wars’, and euthanises Rishi Sunak’s dog—and that’s just October.

The class of ’72, Sara, Ally, Jo and Mitch were as close as sisters, then life intervened and the four friends lost touch. Now in her 60s, Sara has realised - late in the day - that those women were the best friends she’d ever had and is determined to get the gang back together. Ally is facing a huge turning point in her life and Jo, after years of being chief cook and bottle washer, needs to put herself first after a wake-up call. None of them know what happened to Mitch.

Ashley Blaker has six children, three of whom have an SEN diagnosis. Between endless meetings, countless therapists, public humiliations, failed playdates, surreal monologues and occasional violence, it’s certainly not what anyone would call a ‘normal’ household – but would he want it any other way? Normal Schmormal is part-memoir, part how-to guide, highlighting the many challenges, as well as the hugely rewarding elements, of parenting children with additional needs.

Set in Trinidad, and told with wry humour and irresistible wit, One Year of Ugly is a story of family, first love and finding home. When their beloved Aunt Celia dies, Yola and her family discover she had been keeping a huge secret – she was seriously in debt to local criminal, Ugly, and they must do his bidding until the debt is cleared. So far, so ugly. And then Ugly’s distracting gorgeous right-hand man Román arrives on the scene, and Yola just can't help herself. Could this wildly inappropriate (and very messy) romance be the perfect antidote?

All Shelley wanted on her hen weekend was to enjoy three days of sun, sea and sangria. But instead of being surrounded by the A-team of her closest friends, she somehow ends up with a Golden Girls-meets-the-Spice Girls B-list that includes her mother, a rebellious teenager and a best mate ‘on the verge’. The squabbling starts at the airport, and on arrival in Spain, Shelley barely has time to unpack her suitcase before getting an unwanted text—one that throws her wedding into doubt.

Sophie’s journey to motherhood began aged 30 with a cancer diagnosis that stole her fertility. Today, Sophie is older (40), wiser (and agonisingly excellent at hindsight) and somewhat battered. Through interminable cycles of hope and failure, her infertility story spanned three countries, five surrogates and a debt she’d rather not dwell on. Part memoir, part manifesto, The Mother Project is the epic story of Sophie’s quest for happiness.

Everyone craves retirement from the Civil Service, don’t they? That time for an ageing patriarch to enjoy the fruits of a well-earned pension and the respect of his family; maybe even to indulge in a love of music halls and metropolitan life. If only people would listen and do as they were told… His fourth son William, the long-suffering narrator, is the constant butt of his father’s jokes and victim of his brother’s indifference. But as death, divorce and other darker dramas follow, father and son slowly establish a strange harmony.

It’s the cusp of Natasha Sizlo’s 44th birthday. Still reeling from her disastrous divorce—the kind where your husband moves out, you lose your house, your business collapses and you file for bankruptcy—she’s navigating life as a single mum and doing her best to fake it ‘til she makes it in the cutthroat world of LA real estate. In the meantime, her ex-husband is dating a Hollywood star, and she’s just broken it off—for the 100th and final time—with her devastatingly handsome but impossibly noncommittal French boyfriend.