WIT LIT: the funny books podcast Lily Lindon

“’Humour’ is maybe the worst word in the English language” 

Wit Lit is a podcast about funny books - so who better to hear from than a comedian who is also a bookseller? That’s right, it’s only Mr BEN POPE - crowd favourite and manager at The Review Bookshop in Peckham - recommending his favourite funny books. 

We discuss silly book titles, writer’s voices versus comedian’s personas, how the brain can short-circuit ‘funny’ and ‘good’, and how War and Peace is just lots and lots of Tweets lined up next to each other. 

*

How to find Ben: He runs a monthly stand-up show called FRESH CHESTNUTS at the Betsey Trotwood pub in Farringdon! You should go! He can be found talking on Twitter here. He can be found managing a bookshop here. And on his very nice website here. 

*

Boooooks we talk about: 


Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird  
Ayoade on Ayoade by Richard Ayoade  
Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson  
Something Fishy by P G Wodehouse  
Lustre by Raven Leilani 
Anthropology by Dan Rhodes 

In addition: Stewart Lee, Tim Key, Ducks, Newburyport, and Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis  



May we recommend purchasing your books from an independent bookshop like, oh I don’t know, The Review Bookshop. 

*

How to find me: on Twitter @lily_lindon or on Instagram @bookymcbookface

‘Queer people are simply the funniest people’

To end Pride Month with an amusing bang, and to assure everyone that you ARE allowed to still read gay books even if it’s not June, I’m happily joined by Laura Kay, author of THE SPLIT. She recommends her top five funny gay books, we talk about her own writing process and comedy inspirations, and yes, we talk about her cats. Listen in or you’re a homophobe xo

Laura recommends:


ONE LAST STOP - Casey McQuiston
IN AT THE DEEP END - Kate Davies
LESS - Andrew Sean Greer
PLAIN BAD HEROINES - Emily M. Danforth
FUN HOME - Alison Bechdel

Lily adds:


DIARY OF A DRAG QUEEN - Crystal Rasmussen
LOVE LETTERS of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West
(And we both go on about Louise Rennison, an honorary gay.)



May I recommend ordering your books from the excellent Gay’s the Word? 

You can follow Laura on twitter @lauraelizakay or instagram @lauraekay 

Follow updates about funny books at twitter’s @lily_lindon or instagram’s @bookymcbookface

Author of The Shelf Helly Acton and Hannah Tovey, author of The Education of Ivy Edwards, talk about their relatable, entertaining, and emotionally messy everywoman characters. We talk about the particular condition of being a single thirty-year-old woman in our modern society — about funny break-ups, depressing weddings, and balancing love with independence. We also talk about their writing process: Second Book Syndrome, the personal significance of writing funny dialogue, and the vital importance of watching The Office on repeat. Hope you enjoy!
*
Helly Acton is the author of The Shelf and The Couple. She's on Instagram @hellyactonauthor or Twitter @hellyacton.
Hannah Tovey is the author of The Education of Ivy Edwards and Is This It?. She's on Twitter @hannahctovey or Instagram @hannahclaretovey.
All books mentioned are available at Bookshop.org, an online retailers that supports independent bookshops.
Wit Lit updates come from me on @lily_lindon or on Instagram @bookymcbookface.
If you’d like to recommend a book or guest for the pod, please message me, it would make a nice change from my doom scrolling.
LL xo

‘When I read right now, I want to feel like I’m chatting to a friend, I want an easy giggle’ :)
Bad Form Literary Review’s founder and editor-in-chief Amy Baxter, who is also an Editorial Assistant at Penguin Random House (Michael Joseph), recommends her top funny books. They ended up being three books where funny women chat to you in warm, bitesize conversations -- perfect for our current de-socialised brains. Whether you’re looking for lightness and brevity in your reading, or books that will help ease you back into seeing real-life human friends again, hope you enjoy.
*
Amy recommends:
1 Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling (and Nothing Like I Imagined)
2 I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (and Heartburn)
3 Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton (and Ghosts)
All are in available at Bookshop.org, an online retailers that supports local, independent bookshops.
*
Social media links:
Bad Form is an online and print literary review by and about Black, Asian, and racialised community writers. It’s full of brilliant interviews, reviews, and articles — and it’s also all gorgeously designed (by Amy!).
Their Twitter is here and their Instagram is here.
Sign up for their newsletter here.
Wit Lit updates come from me on @lily_lindon or on Instagram @bookymcbookface.
If you’d like to recommend a book or guest for the pod, please message me, I’m desperately lonely.
*
LL xo

All I want to read (/am able to read) at the moment are short, funny books. Wondered if you might be the same? So here I am, for the first time GUEST-LESS, recommending 10 of my favourite witty short stories, essay collections, scripts, picture books, and short novels. Since brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I am brief and recommend the 10 books in just 10 minutes! (Not including the intro and theme music lol.) WOW! FUN!

If you don't even have 10 minutes to listen to my voice, here's the list:

1. David Sedaris / CALYPSO

2. Muriel Spark / THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE

3. Philip Roth / THE BREAST

4. Raphael Bob-Waksberg / SOMEONE WHO WILL LOVE YOU IN ALL YOUR DAMAGED GLORY

5. Stewart Lee / THE 'IF YOU PREFER A MILDER COMEDIAN PLEASE ASK FOR ONE' EP

6. Oyinkan Braithwaite / MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER

7. Amina Cain / INDELICACY

8. Tibor Fischer / DON'T READ THIS BOOK IF YOU'RE STUPID

9. Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West / LOVE LETTERS

10. Jon Klassen / I WANT MY HAT BACK

If you're looking to buy one, please consider your lovely local indie bookshop or bookshop.org. 

Pls subscribe, follow, like, share, comment, tell your friends, text me, send me a present, and confess your love for me. To do so, you can contact me at twitter on @lily_lindon or on instagram @bookymcbookface. Please do recommend witty and short books, or witty and short guests, or anything else you'd like to hear on this poddle. 

Ta ta,

Lily xo

Happy Galentine's, Happy Valentine's and indeed Happy Any Day! To celebrate all things lovely and funny, today's episode is a celebration of rom-coms.

I'm joined on my Zoom by two brilliant writers of funny love stories: Laura Jane Williams is the author of OUR STOP (the international 2019 hit), and two other novels, THE LOVE SQUARE (2020) and THE LUCKY ESCAPE (publishing June 2021). Abigail Mann is the author of THE LONELY FAJITA (winner of the Comedy Women in Print Unpublished Prize) and THE SISTER SURPRISE (publishing in March 2021). 

Laura and Abigail conveniently have completely opposite methods. We talk about whether their books are heavier on the rom or the com, how to go from a blank page to a finished novel, and how their writing has changed over lockdown.

Hope you enjoy! If you do, pls do the usual: like, subscribe, review, tell a friend, and MAKE MY DAY at @lily_lindon, @bookymcbookface, or @witlitpod.

Lily xoxo

PS. This was recorded in December 2020. Depressingly, the lockdown references are still relevant.

PPS. Please could a spelling bee somewhere tell me whether it’s meant to be Rom Com, romcom, rom-com, or something else entirely?