Truth is sometimes found in the most surprising ways, say Parkin and Pollini: even in profanity. It is time to realise that many of our problems arise because we take things too seriously. Letting go of this seriousness, this sense of things mattering so much - in a deliciously un-serious way - can create liberation and change in our lives. And so, by releasing worry and inhibition, uttering with gusto this age-old two-word expletive - ?F**k It!? - and mixing in a generous shot of humour helped by the most wonderfully simple yet meaningful cartoon line-drawings, you can discover more freedom in your life. This absolutely joyous mixture of wisdom and mischief will have you giggling and plotting your new-found liberty in an instant. How about this one? ?Say F**k It and hum Bohemian Rhapsody on the Tube, all the way through.?

In Happiness Edward Monkton unlocks the secrets of happiness, joy and abundance in a funny, wise and inspiring collection of thoughts and cartoon drawings.

A tale of restored self esteem and, yes, inner beauty. A lady feels thoroughly miserable about herself, but is reminded of her wonderful smile, which emanates the loveliness from deep within. A sad day turned happy. Hooray!

A fierce dinosaur and a 'lovely other' dinosaur meet and find lots of things to like about each other - he is tender and funny, and she smells so nice. But their differences start to creep in: like his being distant and her keenness for shopping! Thankfully love prevails and they live happily ever after, standing on the hill, feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs.

A nice, ordinary man greets the 'impressive' people he meets. They react with suspicion and ingratitude. But he has planted the seeds of niceness deep into their hearts, and gradually they feel small urges of pleasantness and twinklings of generosity. They like it, and so they swim together in the soft warm waters of loveliness.

We adored Love Monkey the moment his eyes met ours, and knew we'd found our choice for Valentine's Day. This sweet and charming tale, in Edward Monkton's humorous and quirky, insightful and even spiritual style, will melt hearts in an instant. Monkey crafts a beautiful wooden heart and, having dreamt of a girl monkey whose smile 'lit up his soul like sunshine', he sets out on an epic quest to find her, so that he may give her his heart, the only true gift he has. At last, he finds her, and even though his heart is now chipped and blemished through travels and time, Dream Monkey cherishes it, telling him, 'All my life I have been waiting for a heart like this; a heart that speaks the truth', as she, in return, gives him her heart. This gorgeous little book is a perfect gift of love.
32pp, 138mm x 170mm, illus. in b&w, hardback, 2009, RRP ?6.99 Code: 200202 Cygnus Prices: 1 copy ?4.20, 2+ copies ?4.00 each

There is so much to learn from this wonderful autobiography - which topped the NY Times bestseller list - and from the honesty, intelligence and humour with which Elizabeth Gilbert approaches her brave quest for spiritual enlightenment. Elizabeth is in her thirties. She has a husband, a house, and she's trying for a baby. She knows she should be happy, but who is she, anyway? She doesn't know, and the questions ?who am I?', ?What do I want?' gnaw at her soul. Desperate to discover her own truth, she leaves her husband, and begins a painful process of dismantling everything false in her life, of stripping her habits, her lifestyle, her relationships, everything, down to the bare essentials. Three years later, in new found freedom, she is ready to embark on a year-long journey to find out who she truly is and what will make her happy. Her journey takes her from Italy, through India to Bali, where gradually, healing, happiness and genuine wisdom begin to creep up on her. Ann Napier
352pp, 129mm x 198mm, softback, 2007

An uplifting story set in Los Angeles about one man's effort to bring himself back to life. Richard is a modern day everyman who has done such a good job getting his life under control that he needs no one. His life has slowed almost to a standstill, until two incidents - one painful and one bizarre - conspire to hurl him back into the world, showing that you can never quite be sure what's around the corner. Suddenly his lone, monochrome, predictable life is sent packing as he encounters a motley bunch of delicious characters and events. A vivid novel about compassion and transformation, able to raise a range of smiles and laughter from the wry and sympathetic, to the thoroughly raucous, This Book Will Save Your Life reveals what can happen when you emerge from your cocoon - whether willingly or forced by twists of fate - let go and open up to the world around you. 'I loved this straight away - it's quirky, improbable, and yet so real, like people-watching in paperback.' Sarah 380pp, 128mm x 197mm, softback, 2007

Reginald Iolanthe Perrin is surely one of the best loved comic creations of our time, and this omnibus collects together the first three Reginald Perrin novels containing a lifetime's outrageous adventures. When we first meet Reggie, he is sick to death with selling exotic ices at Sunshine Desserts. Driven to desperation by the rat race and the unpunctuality of Britain's trains, Reggie's small eccentricities escalate to the extreme, until finally he leaves the unacceptable face of capitalism behind by driving off in a stolen motorised jelly. In his pursuit of the unconventional, he devotes himself to faking his own death, opening a shop devoted to selling completely useless goods, and setting up a commune strictly for the middle-class and middle-aged. Join Reggie, who didn't get where he is today without some help from some memorable supporting characters, in one man's quest to avoid an everyday existence.

f you're partial to a good detective story, preferably a comic one, then you'll find Rob Grant's Incompetence a particularly entertaining read. In a future that seems so close that you might blink and find yourself in it, the European Union enacts its most far reaching human rights legislation ever. The incompetent have been persecuted for too long. After all, it's not their fault they can't do it right, is it? So it is made illegal to sack or otherwise discriminate against anyone for being incompetent. Bad is the new good. And now a murder has been committed and our possibly incompetent detective must find out who the murderer is. As long as he can find directions to get him through the mean streets. What a comedy of errors ensues! Rob Grant's satire - for the imagined world of Incompetence is the world we're now living in - gave me something to think about long after the end. ‘This kept me laughing until the very last page!' John

Zen Dog is, when we first encounter him, a rather self important city dog who has lost touch with the meaningful things in life. That is until he meets a very special, trombone playing ant! Yes, we’re back at the mercy of Edward Monkton’s wild and wonderful sense of humour. His stories are bizarre, slightly surreal, always hilarious, cartoons for adults that also manage to convey rather moving, deep messages of compassion, love and friendship. Zen Dog is perfect for anyone who just needs to slow down, or rediscover the simple, beauty of life. ‘The melody was more haunting and lyrical than anything the dog had ever heard before. It washed over him like a river of clean, pure beauty and penetrated deep into his very soul.’

‘A handbook for the happy, and a bible for the broken-hearted’, The Alphabet of the Human Heart is an enchanting and enriching journey through the upside and the downside of what it means to be human - our hopes and our fears, our strength and our weakness, our highs and our lows. Quite literally ‘a book of two halves’, firstly there is an upside A-Z, full of the happy and hopeful aspects of our lives, such as A is for Adventure - the opposite of television, through G is for Gratitude, S is for Smile to Zen is the Place to Be. Flip the book over, and the other downside half examines the negative parts of our lives and how we can overcome them to lead more positive and fulfilling lives. With affirmations, humorous illustrations throughout, and a definite sense of glee, Matthew Johnstone and James Kerr’s little book of wisdom is also the perfect gift to help cheer up a friend or loved one.

Isn’t it great to laugh in the face of stress? If you, or a loved one, is suffering from stress, this could be just that tonic. It’s simple, it’s easy and it’s fun. The verses, quotes and insights within are from an eclectic and esteemed group, including Lord Byron, Andrew Carnegie, Charles Darwin, Emerson, JFK, Abraham Lincoln, Plato, Will Rogers and Dostoevsky, who serve to gently remind you that laughter is the very best of medicines. Gathered by laughter facilitator Kit Hammond Stapely Rhonda Blunden, It Could Be Verse, gives you the ammunition to blast the destructive power of stress and the pressure of stressful situations out of your life. It will be your companion in providing a cure for stress. You’ll not only find relief from the current stress you’re trying to deal with - but you’ll be better equipped to fight it off in the future. Buy this book for yourself and, says Kit, in a few hours you could feel stress free. Why not give this book to a loved one or friend and help them turn their life around and live a happy life?

Poignant, funny, joyful, profoundly moving and uplifting, I Think I Love You captures deliciously what we learn about love, life and friendship when our teenage (and our grown-up) emotions run riot. Remember when the man of your dreams was waiting for you between the pages of Jackie? Remember when your signature scent was a heady mix of joss sticks and ‘White Musk’? This hilarious and heart-warming novel takes you back to the days of lip-gloss, unrequited love, teenage crushes and Anne French cleansing milk. We enter the world of two unforgettable friends: Petra and Sharon, in 1970s South Wales, who live for David Cassidy. His fan magazine is the girls’ Bible and they memorise every word that he sings and writes, in the hope of becoming the future Mrs Cassidy. But whose words are they? Perhaps David’s letters and what lies behind them, belong to someone else. The secret lies with Bill Finn, reluctant pop journalist, whose job it is to compile the Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz. Top prize: the trip of a lifetime, to meet your one and only love. Over two decades later, bruised by grief, Petra is living with her thirteen-year-old daughter, who has her own teen crush. By sheer chance - or by destiny’s twists - Petra discovers that the questions which obsessed her back in 1974 are suddenly very much alive. And Bill, successful in business but never in love, has some confessions of his own.

In an uproariously funny and achingly sad novel, Allison Pearson captures the guilty secret lives of working mothers, the self-recriminations, comic deceptions, forgeries, giddy exhaustion and despair. With wit, irony and a sparkling style, she brilliantly dramatises the dilemmas of modern working motherhood. Meet Kate Reddy, fund manager and mother of two. She can juggle nine different currencies in five different time zones and get herself and two children washed and dressed and out of the house in half an hour. A victim of ‘time famine’, Kate counts seconds like other women count calories. As she hurtles between appointments, through her head spools the crazy tape-loop of the working mother’s life: must remember client reports, bouncy castles, transatlantic phone call, nativity play, check Dow Jones, cancel hygienist, squeeze sagging pelvic floor, make time for sex. Factor in a manipulative nanny, an Australian boss who looks at Kate’s breasts as if they’re on special offer, a long suffering husband, her quietly aghast in-laws, two needy children and an e-mail lover, and you have a woman juggling so many balls that some day soon something’s going to hit the ground. Allison takes you into a world so convincing that it’s sure to have a real bearing on your life. Wow - this is one of the most addictive books we’ve ever read!