Laugh your Way to The All Good Bookshop
The All Good Bookshop is an independent bookshop in Haringey that sell lots of lovely books. The shop is managed by Tim West, who is an old man with ill-advised fashion sense and over 30 years of experience running bookshops and events. If you live nearby, you’ll almost certainly already know and love/tolerate Tim.
There is humour at the heart of everything The All Good Bookshop – even the name of the shop started as a joke, and our email address is control@allgoodbookshop.co.uk because we’re pretty sure Tim doesn’t actually have any control over anything. Tim bought a ‘Serious’ bike to do his deliveries on because he liked the name. Unfortunately, it broke down and now he has a “Big Game” bike. Again, all because of the name.
So, getting our Comedy Nights up and running after the lockdown restrictions were lifted was one of our priorities. We were very lucky that this coincided with Mike Lash looking for a new venue to run his comedy night, and so the All Good Comedy Club was born! It has been running on the first Friday of every month since September 2022, and has grown from strength to strength. Mike introduces four great acts every month to a very welcoming audience, and he does his best to stop Tim from ‘joining in’.
Now – perhaps more than ever – people need a lift, and reading a good comedy or uplifting book is, obviously, our favourite way to cheer ourselves up.
Tim West’s Favourite Funny Books
Redshirts, John Scalzi
The recommendation of this novel from one of our customers earlier this year came at an ideal time. It’s a brilliant read and very funny. It’s based on the extras who get killed on every Star Trek away mission. We read it as part of one of our book groups, and it scored very highly, even with those who don’t like Sci-Fi!
The Antipope, Robert Rankin
Another book that always cheers me up is Robert Rankin’s 1981 novel The Antipope, which is the first of the legendary seven-book Brentford trilogy. It follows the adventures of two work-shy layabouts in the leafy borough of Brentford, as their world is torn asunder by the appearance of Pope Alexander VI – the last of the Borgias – out of the pages of history. It’s just funny, okay. Terry Pratchett once said that Robert Rankin was ‘one of the few people who can really make me laugh’, or something like that.
Himself, Jess Kidd
Lastly, but by no means leastly, Himself is another of our book group’s high scoring choices. Not a comedy per-se, this book is more of a quirky spiritual-fantasy set in a timeless Ireland. The tale of a prodigal son returning to the scene of his mother’s brutal murder. Actually, it’s not a funny plot at all… But, trust me, it has some really funny bits in it…
Wishbone Billy, Stephen Fitzsimon
And for children, we have the self-published Wishbone Billy, which tells the disgusting adventures of Billy as he wishes for better parents. We are recommending this because it’s funny, and not because Stephen works in the shop and runs our Spoken Word Night, I promise. It is good, honestly. Tim read the first chapter to several classes of 8 year olds, and they laughed. Which is good.
