Sunday 10 January 2010

When 1p is too much

I know this is not the most appealing start to a blogpost but...Richard Littlejohn's latest book is coming out soon.

The book - Littlejohn's House of Fun: Thirteen Years of (Labour) Madness - is available for pre-order. According to Amazon, it's released on 1 April 2010.

Yes, apparently Littlejohn's book is coming out on the day when you can never be quite sure that something you are reading, seeing or hearing is true.

Imagine that.

As if the fact it's been written by Littlejohn wasn't enough to put any sane person off, just look at the horrific cover:


It does look like such 'fun', doesn't it?

There's Littlejohn, in a suit and open-necked shirt, looking a bit smug, arms out, master of all he surveys. The cover implies there's going to be 'hilarious' stories about wheelie bins, cameras (CCTV) and bureaucracy.

This is, of course, in stark contrast to Littlejohn's last book cover:


In this one, Littlejohn, in a suit and open-necked shirt, looks a bit puzzled, arms out, master of all he surveys. The cover implies there's going to be 'hilarious' stories about wheelie bins, cameras (speed) and the London Eye.

Seasoned Littlejohn watchers know he writes the same old cliches about the same old subjects over and over again, so it shouldn't be a surprise his books look the same outside as well as inside.

You can't help but think these are books you can quite easily judge by their cover.

And notice the quote at the bottom from the Mail on Sunday, calling Mail-columnist Littlejohn's book 'wise' and 'funny'. Amazing. The other quote comes from - ahem - Jeremy Clarkson.

When Littlejohn's Britain first came out in May 2007, it actually had this cover:

Re-released in October, it had the quotes added. And more white...

If the £11.69 price tag for the new book seems a bit steep, you can always buy his older books from Amazon Marketplace.

Littlejohn's Britain is currently available for the still-a-bit-steep price of 1p:

Or if you want the hardback...well, that's 1p too:

In total, there are 59 copies of Littlejohn's Britain waiting to be snapped up for 1p.

Or maybe you would like to buy his 2001 novel To Hell in a Handcart, also available for a lot more than it's worth:

And if you are a real glutton for punishment, how about his mid-90s effort You Couldn't Make It Up? Obviously, time has made this classic more collectable than the others. It's available for 9p:


So expect Littlejohn's House of Fun to be coming to a bargin bin near you very soon.

8 comments:

  1. Wow! Now I realise why he lives in Florida - he's just too massive to actually fit onto the UK! Look - his feet take up most of Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire alone! That's the real reason he looks so confused all the time. Please don't poke fun at this freakishly large man... we must pity him.

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  2. I work at a Children's society shop in east London. I've been there for three years now, in that time the one constant amoungst changing staff and managers has been the three Littlejohn books that have clung resolutly to the shelves ever since I arrived.
    I imagine they will still be there when I eventually leave, and will probably witness the heat-death of the universe before they are sold.

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  3. Many thanks for the hint: I've just had a browse in Amazon.co.uk for the historic rantings of Maily Telegraph hack Christopher Booker (the one penning an increasingly hysterical series of pieces about climate change) and have already found several with the same one penny value. Little changes with the size of the format, does it?

    Another "Broadsheet Watch" blog post clearly beckons! Thanks again.

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  4. I didn't think it possible that a more punch-worthy book cover could exist after 'Littlejohn's Britain' but, by god, they've made it.

    There are few things in the average Waterstones that actually make me want to commit acts of violence against inanimate paperbacks but Richard's book is one of them.

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  5. No specific comment about the story but when I was reading through it I had got the impression it was an Iain Dale piece becuase I'd missed the Tabloid Watch headline in my blog reader, you can image how bizarre that was.

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  6. In Littlejohn's world, Labour invented CCTV and wheel clamps.

    What's the betting there's nothing on actual important issues in his manuscript? Nothing on Iraq and so on, I bet.

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  7. Do the people selling it for 1p not realise the arse-wiping or fuel-burning potential of this book?

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  8. Anon is right; 1p for toilet paper? I wouldn't burn it for fuel though, it's possible the smoke might be infected with Littlejohn's totally idiocy. We don't want that shit airborne.

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