Humor

Highly entertaining account of a young man's first year as a rookie comedian. His comedy is focused on the world rather than the church, and he gigs regularly around the country - average three times a week.

He has a considerable following through the churches but also does a great deal of work through the mainstream comedy circuit. He has performed regularly at all the main Christian events.

"The book represents my first year in the world of comedy. The book will chart the reality of life on the comedy circuit - and how those ups and downs affect my faith, my relationships, my goals etc. It is also about a 25 year old slightly at odds with his environment. The gigs are a stepping stone for observations on life in general. I want to provide good quality humour that faces outwards and talks about life in general, rather than looking inwards and seeing the funny side of church."

Meet Tom Hillingthwaite the newest employee of Jesus4All (formerly the Turn or Burn Gospel Coalition). Leaving his cushy, well-to-do life, Tom relocates to a rough estate in the urban sprawl of Bruton, in the south of England, to take up a job as 'Community Builder'. There's only one problem: Tom's ability to build community is overshadowed by his far greater ability to create utter chaos. How will Tom's middle-class pretensions cope with his new hostile environment? How can he expect to tell anyone about God when, some of the time, saying his own name proves beyond him? And - who is the strange shadowy man in the background? With his wife and daughter relying on him to provide for them, and his bosses demanding backsides on seats in the Kingdom, Tom needs to adapt, and fast. So begin The Unfortunate Adventures of Tom Hillingthwaite.

The Bible is full of words which don't really work hard enough. Nigel Bayley has provided outrageous but hilarious definitions, describing situations that were just waiting to be brought into the light. Such as, Junia (n.) The intelligent young volunteer who is inadvertently outwitting you and thereby gently ruining your poorly thought out children's talk. Hittite (n.) One towards whom your immediate and overwhelming pastoral instinct is to punch them really hard in the face. Shamsherai (n.) The vocal mayhem caused by songwriters who think it would be pleasing and authentic to have a line in Hebrew. The finest antidote to boring sermons and the best possible reading for the smallest room. This book will make a splendid gift for the less reverent members of the congregation.

Andy Kind's 'The Unfortunate Adventures of Tom Hillingthwaite' might just be the funniest book to have come out of Christendom. It's certainly the first in a new line of comedy novels to arise from the growing number of active Christians on the UK comedy circuit. In this book, you'll meet Tom; a faithful and totally hapless Community Builder. Most of us will recognise both his sense of hopefulness and his social awkardness, and laugh and cry with him along the journey as Tom tries his hardest to bless his neighbours and sow seeds in a spiritual waste ground. But this is a book that avoids the potential pitfalls of cheesiness and tweeness of so-called Christian comedy. It's more 'Rev' than 'Vicar of Dibley'. Here, you will find no easy fix, no Deus ex Machina. 'The Unfortunate Adventures of Tom Hillingthwaite' is a work of fiction that will feel incredibly real to many. This is an exciting, unexpected and pioneering novel which merges Andy Kind's skills from a decade on the comedy circuit with his knowledge of a decade as a Christian. Standing on the shoulders of the great Adrian Plass, and influence also by the likes of Evelyn Waugh and P.G. Wodehouse, this book might well be ushering in a new era for comedy writing within the Christian world.

The Bible is full of words which don't really work hard enough. Nigel Bayley has provided outrageous but hilarious definitions, describing situations that were just waiting to be brought into the light: Junia (n.) The intelligent young volunteer who is inadvertently outwitting you and thereby gently ruining your poorly thought out children's talk. Hittite (n.) One towards whom your immediate and overwhelming pastoral instinct is to punch them really hard in the face. Shamsherai (n.) The vocal mayhem caused by songwriters who think it would be pleasing and authentic to have a line in Hebrew. The finest antidote to boring sermons and the best possible reading for the smallest room. This book will make a splendid gift for the less reverent members of the congregation.

Highly entertaining account of a young man's first year as a rookie comedian. His comedy is focused on the world rather than the church, and he gigs regularly around the country - average three times a week.

He has a considerable following through the churches but also does a great deal of work through the mainstream comedy circuit. He has performed regularly at all the main Christian events.

"The book represents my first year in the world of comedy. The book will chart the reality of life on the comedy circuit - and how those ups and downs affect my faith, my relationships, my goals etc. It is also about a 25 year old slightly at odds with his environment. The gigs are a stepping stone for observations on life in general. I want to provide good quality humour that faces outwards and talks about life in general, rather than looking inwards and seeing the funny side of church."