A Little Book of Lies (or Penguin Gynaecology for Beginners) - Softcover

Lockwood, Richard; Potz-Rayner, Steve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1411675819 ISBN 13: 9781411675810

Publisher: Lulu.com, 2006

Synopsis

Eighteen hundred amusing lies and not a scrap of truth to be seen. Judged as being "extraordinarily witty" by The Revd. Charles Chlamydia (1823-1881) while Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) said "I don't get it, and anyway I've been dead 113 years, why are you asking me?"

About this title

From the Author

STEVE SAYS: Rich and I first met in the mid Nineties in a pub called the King Edward VII in Stratford, E15. Recognising in each other the exulted art of Talking Utter Bollocks we started writing our own book - Rich set up a website that was little more than a drop point for ideas, to be tidied up in the editing.

When it was deemed ready (1800 ish lies or 50,000 words - we reckoned that was about 200 pages), I started hawking it round publishers, but it became clear that without an agent, no-one was interested, and agents 'weren't taking anyone on, love'.

The moment of revelation came in the humour department of Waterstones on Piccadilly in London; 90+% of the books in there were, frankly, shit. Books with one joke repeated ad nauseam, lousy full page single gag comics, all sorts of crap - and it got published! One can only assume the authors had an 'in' to the market. Suffice to say, the publishers didn't seem to be interested, so we found out how to do it ourselves instead, simply because our book is funnier than the vast majority of the potential landfill on the shelves out there. We took the attitude that if the publishers won't play with us, we'll play with ourselves instead. Hang on, can I rewrite that bit?

Originally published in 2006 and then reissued in a second edition in (apparently) late 2008 but really in early 2009, this book had been subject of many rejection letters from publishing houses and agents alike, which is a shame because it's really very funny. It does seem to be a bit Marmite; you'll lve it or hate it.

If you find the version with the cow on the front, that's the second edition. Buy that one.

From the Back Cover

Once in a while comes a literary work of such breathtaking depth, such noble beauty and such exquisite good taste and grave that the authors are lauded as Saviours of Humankind, Great Men Among Men and Gentlemen of Wisdom. Honorary doctorates are handed out like confetti, labraries and places of study are named inb their honour, and young beautiful socirty ladies throw themselves at the feet of the erudite individuals in the hope of a morsel of wisdom, a droll bon mot, or an enthusiastic evening ina quality hotel with a decent minibar.

This alas is not that book. Take two chaps with twisted imaginations, keenly developed senses of the ridiculous, a crate of ale and two years'; editing tim, and this is what you get; the 2nd edition of the Little Book Of Lies. Improving upon the original by dint of deleting a few dozen jokes that didn't work and wanging in roughly 450 new ones, this book is 25% larger, but with 37% less calories and 176% more alcohol by volume. The topics still range from Badger disembowelment to Einstein the swimming pool letch, via Lemmy out of Motorhead's cure for the common cold and the Three Tenors/50 Cent crossover tribute act, Thirty Quid. Buy it, it's funnier that anything else you've got in the loo for the patrons to read.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1411675819
• ISBN 13: 9781411675810
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216