Bill Bryson
Made In America

In Made in America, Byson de-mythologizes his native land-explaining how a dusty desert hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'toosday', how Americans were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up-as well as exposing the true origins of the G-string, the original $64,000 question and Dr Kellogg of cornflakes fame.

John Mortimer
Rumpole Of The Bailey

Of incisive wit and a 'nose' that cuts swathes through the judicial system, Horace Rumpole features in these short stories: Rumpole and the Younger Generation, Rumpole and the Alternative Society, Rumpole and the Honourable member, Rumpole and the Married Lady, Rumpole and the Learned Friends and Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade. He now takes up his pen in pious hope of making a bob or two that the egregious taxman, or She Who Must Be Obeyed (Mrs Rumpole), or his clerk, Henry, won't benefit from.

Beryl Bainbridge
According To Queeny

In 1764, the great Samuel Johnson, irascible genius and the toast of all society, is plagued by ill health and has become jaded with his bickering dependants. Suffering from a bout pf melancholy, he accepts an introduction to the table of Henry Thrale, a wealthy Southwalk brewer, and his vivacious wife Hester. It is left to Hester's neglected oldest daughter, named after her mother but known as Queeny, prodigiously clever, spirited and mocking, to provide her own sharp commentary on the destruction that ensues.