Humor

In this delightful sleigh ride through Christmas history, Paul Kerensa answers the festive questions you never thought to ask...

Did Cromwell help shape the mince pie? Was St Nicholas the first to use an automatic door? Which classic Christmas crooners were inspired by a Hollywood heatwave? And did King Herod really have a wife called Doris?

Whether you mull on wine or enjoy the biggest turkey, the biggest tree or the biggest credit card bill, unwrap your story through our twelve dates of Christmas past. From Roman revelry to singing Bing, via Santa, Scrooge and a snoozing saviour, this timeless tale is perfect trivia fodder for the Christmas dinner table.

Maybe Jesus was joking, the disciples didn't know what they were doing and the New Testament is a lot funnier than you might think.

You would think it weird if someone suddenly ascended into heaven, right? Reading between the lines, do we detect a touch of rivalry between Peter and John? And surely the lack of parables in the latter's mystical tome is simply crying out to be redressed...

In this sparklingly witty book, BBC sitcom writer James Cary gives us a new and liberating way of looking at the gospel as he entertainingly relates it to a modern context, with references ranging from Charles Dickens to The Vicar of Dibley. Cheerfully playing around with the text, he takes the Bible seriously but allows us to laugh at our own petty vanities and foibles - and be enlightened in the process.

The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer is ideal for anyone wanting to liven up their Bible reading and looking for new ways to be thrilled by this sacred text. It's also perfect for priests, pastors, youth leaders and all those involved in ministry and giving sermons, as James Cary shows using comedy and humour is a brilliant way to communicate the gospel.

Warm, funny and full of brilliant insight and Christian humour, The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer will make you laugh out loud and shake your head in awe. You'll never read the Bible the same way again.

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.

'An elegant treatise on how [the church] could lighten up its image.' The Times

'Having worked for many years at the coalface of comedy, sorting the dross from the combustible, James Cary is uniquely qualified to write this book.' Milton Jones, comedian and panellist on BBC2's Mock the Week

Every few weeks a politician, pundit or soap star causes a media storm by making a gaffe or tweeting a joke that some people do not find funny. Comedy is very hard to get right and yet we think it's important to have a sense of humour and not take yourself too seriously. On the other hand, a sense of humour failure can lead to losing your friends, your twitter account, your job, your career and, in some cases, your life.

James Cary knows about this. He is a sitcom writer who's written jokes about bomb disposal in Afghanistan (Bluestone 42), defended comments about Islam by Ben Elton on Newsnight, been on a panel with radical Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary, sits on the General Synod of the Church of England and somehow managed to co-write episodes of Miranda.

An odd mix, but one that makes him very readable. This entertaining, breezy book, explains how comedy works (with jokes and quotes) and gives much-needed insights into the controversy surrounding humour.

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.

In this delightful sleigh ride through Christmas history, Paul Kerensa answers the festive questions you never thought to ask...

Did Cromwell help shape the mince pie? Was St Nicholas the first to use an automatic door? Which classic Christmas crooners were inspired by a Hollywood heatwave? And did King Herod really have a wife called Doris?

Whether you mull on wine or enjoy the biggest turkey, the biggest tree or the biggest credit card bill, unwrap your story through our twelve dates of Christmas past. From Roman revelry to singing Bing, via Santa, Scrooge and a snoozing saviour, this timeless tale is perfect trivia fodder for the Christmas dinner table.

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.

Steve Turner's poems about dads are full of rib-tickling humour and warmth. Both children and dads will relate to the themes as well as Steve Turner's style. '^Steve Turner is] one of the most original and child-friendly voices to emerge in the last few years'. The Sunday Telegraph Fun, witty, full-colour cartoon illustrations by David Mostyn reflect the mood of the poems.

'An elegant treatise on how [the church] could lighten up its image.' The Times

'Having worked for many years at the coalface of comedy, sorting the dross from the combustible, James Cary is uniquely qualified to write this book.' Milton Jones, comedian and panellist on BBC2's Mock the Week

Every few weeks a politician, pundit or soap star causes a media storm by making a gaffe or tweeting a joke that some people do not find funny. Comedy is very hard to get right and yet we think it's important to have a sense of humour and not take yourself too seriously. On the other hand, a sense of humour failure can lead to losing your friends, your twitter account, your job, your career and, in some cases, your life.

James Cary knows about this. He is a sitcom writer who's written jokes about bomb disposal in Afghanistan (Bluestone 42), defended comments about Islam by Ben Elton on Newsnight, been on a panel with radical Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary, sits on the General Synod of the Church of England and somehow managed to co-write episodes of Miranda.

An odd mix, but one that makes him very readable. This entertaining, breezy book, explains how comedy works (with jokes and quotes) and gives much-needed insights into the controversy surrounding humour.

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."

Maybe Jesus was joking, the disciples didn't know what they were doing and the New Testament is a lot funnier than you might think.

You would think it weird if someone suddenly ascended into heaven, right? Reading between the lines, do we detect a touch of rivalry between Peter and John? And surely the lack of parables in the latter's mystical tome is simply crying out to be redressed...

In this sparklingly witty book, BBC sitcom writer James Cary gives us a new and liberating way of looking at the gospel as he entertainingly relates it to a modern context, with references ranging from Charles Dickens to The Vicar of Dibley. Cheerfully playing around with the text, he takes the Bible seriously but allows us to laugh at our own petty vanities and foibles - and be enlightened in the process.

The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer is ideal for anyone wanting to liven up their Bible reading and looking for new ways to be thrilled by this sacred text. It's also perfect for priests, pastors, youth leaders and all those involved in ministry and giving sermons, as James Cary shows using comedy and humour is a brilliant way to communicate the gospel.

Warm, funny and full of brilliant insight and Christian humour, The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer will make you laugh out loud and shake your head in awe. You'll never read the Bible the same way again.