Bøker av David Nobbs

At first it seems as if journalist Henry Pratt is living a life that is rather small in scope - but all is due to change. A series of events challenge Henry the reporter and Henry the man and by the end of the play he is married and much wiser to the ways of the world.

This play traces the ups and downs in the life of Henry Pratt. Born in 1935, Henry's childhood is disrupted first by war, then by the death of his mother and father. Henry is packed off to prep school and then public school and then lives with grown-up cousin Hilda. The play ends in 1953, as he begins his National Service. David Nobbs is well known as a TV writer of quality and this play was screened under the title The Life and Times of Henry Pratt.Large flexible cast

The classic follow-up to A Bit of A Do, about the comedy of Yorkshire life, told through seven more do's is now available in ebook format.Life is still a social minefield in this small Yorkshire town. From the opening of a vegetarian restaurant to the inauguration of the Outer Inner Relief Ring Road, join Ted and Liz as they struggle through another series of excruciatingly funny 'do's' in this sequel to A BIT OF A DO.Can Ted find happiness with a waitress, now that he and Liz are no longer an item? Can Liz bring comfort to the grieving Neville, her strangely immaculate second husband?Above all, how will Ted's ex-wife Rita manage as her family becomes more dysfunctional at every function? Can she possibly be as happy as she seems?

From the author of the Reginald Perrin series comes a classic tale of two families, one posher than the other, set in a Yorkshire town.'I'm the groom's father. You're the bride's mother. It's their wedding day.'When Ted Simcock, maker of toasting forks in a small Yorkshire town, tries to avoid the inevitable with beautiful dentist's wife Liz Rodenhurst, his anguished attempt fails utterly, with huge consequences for both their families.From one awkward 'do' to the next, via a dentists' dinner dance and the Crowning of Miss Frozen Chicken (UK), the fall-out touches everyone, but none more than Liz's husband Laurence and Ted's wife Rita, the unexpected heroine of this tale.Charting the relationship of newlyweds Paul and Jenny, along with the infamous coupling of their respective parents, Ted and Liz, this book will have you cringing, crying and laughing out loud.

The much-anticipated novel from David Nobbs is the spiritual follow-up to The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and is as witty as it is prescient.When revelations about the scandalous relationships and less than honest business practices of Sir Gordon Coppinger - infamous financier and devotee of excess - are made public, the glamorous facade of his London life begins to crumble and those around him fear the worst.But, much to Sir Gordon's surprise, all he can feel is relief.In this brilliant and funny examination of modern British values, where success is governed by the principles of wealth and celebrity and driven by the insatiable desire to attain more and more, we meet the perfect anti-hero: Gordon Coppinger, a man going quietly sane.

David Nobbs classic is now available in ebook format.One wintry afternoon a lodger named Wilson arrives at 38, Trebisall Avenue, filled with hope. As he crosses the threshold of Mrs Pollard's house, with its "e;aura of impending stew"e; he becomes a new man. This is a tactic he has tried before, just as he has tried many jobs before, from cook to seismographer's assistant. But alas, each time he was sacked because it was not his vocation. And so he has moved on, from town to town, from landlady to landlady: from Mrs McManus of Barnstaple, to Mrs McManus of Newport (I.O.W). Now, under the motherly eye of Mrs Pollard, he attempts a number of new vocations including those of poet and postman. Strange things befall him in the process: he is even tried and convicted for scandalous offences of which he has no recollection. But his progress continues, out through the end of this book, in search of a panacea for all mankind.

David Nobbs' classic is now available as an ebook .Why should up-and-coming, thirty-two-year-old executive Robert Bellamy get himself the sack? What made him draw a caricature of the Exports Manager on the wall of the non-executive gents? Why is he his own worst enemy?Is it because he nearly ran away from boarding school on his third day or because, when he was fourteen, his mother developed a fatal friendship for a man who looked like Hitler? Does his sense of inadequacy stem from his once being mistaken for a draft of 350 men? Or from his failure long ago to do justice to the facilities at Mme Antoinette's Maison d'Amitie (Paris branch)? Has he been too slow with Sonia, too fast with Frances?Whatever the reason, one act of brinkmanship seems to lead to another. Robert finds himself involved in a series of embarrassing farewells and confusing interviews and open and shut court case as he drifts towards the prospect of a stiflingly happy Christmas and an intolerably cheerful New Year.

David Nobbs' classic is now available in ebook format.' "e; A change of environment will bring you new business and personal interests,"e; said Cousin Percy. Pegasus was glad to hear this.' Whether Pegasus Baines would have been so glad had he foreseen the outcome of his hasty decision to abandon the career of potential Nobel-prize winning nutrition scientist in favour of that world famous chef is less certain. The change of environment from North London with its deafening traffic to East Anglia with its menacing power stations brings new nightmares and new problems into his life.The 'ostrich country' of David Nobbs' novel lies somewhere between modern Britain and cloud cuckoo-land. Pegasus Baines is an innocent idealist, a self-deceiver. The tale of his tangles which gradually involve mistresses old and new, long-suffering family and several more-or-less innocent bystanders, modulates from honours melancholy to hilarious farce.

From one of the greatest comedic writers of a generation comes a story of love, faith and taxidermy.'Three mighty obstacles threaten the burgeoning love of childhood sweethearts Timothy Pickering and Naomi Walls. They are Steven Venables, a dead curlew and God.'1978: Two lovers perch precariously on the cusp of adulthood. Timothy's father decides it's time for him to take on the family taxidermy business; while Naomi dreams of a career on stage.Across the decades their lives continue to interweave, and occasionally cross - bound by the pull of intoxicating first love. But will their destinies ultimately unite them?Nobbs moves his exceptional comic talent to a new-found depth. Memorable and moving, a tale of love won and love lost. You will never look at the art of taxidermy in the same way again.

As eager to prove it as he is to please, he is in at the deep end in his chosen profession - cub reporter on the Thurmarsh Evening Argus. As trams and typewriters chatter to the echoes of Suez and Hungary, Henry finds himself in an exciting if bewildering world.

THE COMPLETE PRATT compiles the first three volumes of the misadventures of Henry Pratt, beginning with a brilliantly funny evocation of a Yorkshire boyhood in SECOND FROM LAST IN THE SACK RACE; Finally, in THE CUCUMBER MAN, Henry decides to take on a new role and a new challenge - working for the Cucumber Marketing Board in Leeds.

Seizing the day, as they pull into Euston station, Alan asks Ange out to dinner and so begins the unlikeliest of liaisons. They even travel to Rome seeing many wonderful things as Alan learns to live for the moment and Ange to appreciate the finer things in life.

When pretty young TV researcher Nicky Proctor visits Cafe Henry in London's Soho, Henry Pratt's life changes forever. He becomes an instant star of the TV food quiz, A Question of Salt. Henry is happy in his second marriage to Hilary, but he is sorely tempted by young Nicky and his co-star Sally. Can he resist? Can he become a real man at last?

Reginald Iolanthe Perrin is surely one of the best loved comic creations, in both literature and television. This omnibus collects together the first three Reginald Perrin novels containing outrageous adventures.

Every time someone changes sex, there's one less freak in the worldMeet the Divots. However, she's always been the supportive type and she'll wait her turn. Will Nick become Nicola? Can Alison become Alan? There are dramatic changes in store for them too - and for Alison's father, Bernie.

As a small boy David Nobbs survived the Second World War unscathed, until his bedroom ceiling fell on him when the last bomb to be dropped on Britain by the Germans landed near his home.

But Kate's journey through the twentieth century is also a search for the truth - about life, death, and which of her three sons murdered her fifth husband. This is a novel rich in memorable characters, from Kate's narrow but loving Welsh family to the wild members of an artists' colony in Cornwall;