Tall Tales and Wee Stories

Tall Tales and Wee Stories
Author: Billy Connolly
Publisher: Two Roads
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2019-10-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1529361354

80TH BIRTHDAY EDITION - NOW WITH 10 NEW TALL TALES! THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Connolly's raucous run through his life is as furious, funny and foul-mouthed as you'd expect' Sunday Times In December 2018, after fifty years of belly-laughs, energy and outrage, Billy Connolly announced his retirement from live stand-up comedy. It had been an extraordinary career. When he first started out in the late sixties, Billy played the banjo in the folk clubs of Scotland. Between songs, he would improvise a bit, telling anecdotes from the Clyde shipyard where he'd worked. In the process, he made all kinds of discoveries about what audiences found funny, from his own brilliant mimes to the power of speaking irreverently about politics or explicitly about sex. He began to understand the craft of great storytelling. Soon the songs became shorter and the monologues longer, and Billy quickly became recognised as one of the most exciting comedians of his generation. Tall Tales and Wee Stories brings together the very best of Billy's storytelling for the first time and includes his most famous routines including, The Last Supper, Jojoba Shampoo, Incontinence Pants and Shouting at Wildebeest. With an introduction and original illustrations by Billy throughout, it is an inspirational, energetic and riotously funny read, and a fitting celebration of our greatest ever comedian.

Made In Scotland

Made In Scotland
Author: Billy Connolly
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2018-10-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1473531675

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Where do you come from? It's one of the most basic human questions of all. But there is another question, which might sound a wee bit similar but is actually very different: What do you come from? And, let me tell you, that question can take you all sorts of strange places...' In Made in Scotland, legendary comic and national treasure Billy Connolly returns to his roots, reflecting on his life, his homeland and what it means – then and now – to be Scottish. Full of Billy's distinctive humour, Made in Scotland is a hilarious and heartfelt love letter to the place and the people that made him.

Windswept & Interesting

Windswept & Interesting
Author: Billy Connolly
Publisher: Two Roads
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2021-10-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1529318289

In his first full-length autobiography, comedy legend and national treasure Billy Connolly reveals the truth behind his windswept and interesting life. Born in a tenement flat in Glasgow in 1942, orphaned by the age of 4, and a survivor of appalling abuse at the hands of his own family, Billy's life is a remarkable story of success against all the odds. Billy found his escape first as an apprentice welder in the shipyards of the River Clyde. Later he became a folk musician - a 'rambling man' - with a genuine talent for playing the banjo. But it was his ability to spin stories, tell jokes and hold an audience in the palm of his hand that truly set him apart. As a young comedian Billy broke all the rules. He was fearless and outspoken - willing to call out hypocrisy wherever he saw it. But his stand-up was full of warmth, humility and silliness too. His startling, hairy 'glam-rock' stage appearance - wearing leotards, scissor suits and banana boots - only added to his appeal. It was an appearance on Michael Parkinson's chat show in 1975 - and one outrageous story in particular - that catapulted Billy from cult hero to national star. TV shows, documentaries, international fame and award-winning Hollywood movies followed. Billy's pitch-perfect stand-up comedy kept coming too - for over 50 years, in fact - until a double diagnosis of cancer and Parkinson's Disease brought his remarkable live performances to an end. Since then he has continued making TV shows, creating extraordinary drawings... and writing. Windswept and Interesting is Billy's story in his own words. It is joyfully funny - stuffed full of hard-earned wisdom as well as countless digressions on fishing, farting and the joys of dancing naked. It is an unforgettable, life-affirming story of a true comedy legend. 'I didn't know I was Windswept and Interesting until somebody told me. It was a friend who was startlingly exotic himself. He'd just come back from Kashmir and was all billowy shirt and Indian beads. I had long hair and a beard and was swishing around in electric blue flairs. He said: "Look at you - all windswept and interesting!" I just said: "Exactly!" After that, I simply had to maintain my reputation...'

Journey to the Edge of the World

Journey to the Edge of the World
Author: Billy Connolly
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009
Genre: Arctic regions
ISBN: 9780755318858

To have Billy Connolly as a personal tour guide through some of the world's most dramatic landscapes in the vast wilderness of the Arctic is to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience only he can offer. In his own quintessential way, this much-loved Scottish comedian, actor, musician and self-proclaimed 'citizen of the world' takes us zig-zagging from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean via Newfoundland, Canada, the Yukon and the Northwest Passage in an epic adventure only recently made possible through global warming. With his infectious enthusiasm and idiosyncratic humour, Billy goes searching for the beauty of ordinariness and bumps into all manner of weird and wonderful people along the way. He learns how to be a bear whisperer, pans for gold with prospectors, learns how to square dance, kayaks through ice floes between fishing trips, runs bare-assed into a sweat lodge, and attempts the finer complexities of the Inuit language. He jams with fiddlers, kisses a cod, goes hunting for Big Foot, and invokes the spirit of the ancients while iceberg-harvesting. With as many laugh-out-loud moments as they are poignant ones, Journey to the Edge of the World is more than just an informative and entertaining travel guide - it is time spent exclusively in the company of an irascible national treasure.

Billy Connolly's Route 66

Billy Connolly's Route 66
Author: Billy Connolly
Publisher: Sphere
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2011-09-15
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0748129952

Follow much-loved Scottish comedian Billy Connolly across Route 66 on this unforgettable journey, filled with music, modern history and hilarious stories. Billy Connolly first dreamed of taking a trip on the legendary Route 66 when he heard Chuck Berry belting out one of the greatest rock 'n' roll records of all time - and now he's finally had the chance to do it. Travelling every one of its 2,278 miles on his custom-make motorbike, Billy's journey takes him past many of the best-known icons in the US: the Gateway Arch in St Louis, Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, and the funky neon-lit gas stations and diners that once lined the route. Billy also has the chance to get to know the people who call it home, from Mervin the Amish carpenter, to fellow banjo enthusiast and obsessive instrument collector Rob, to Angel, one of the many people determined to keep the spirit of the Mother Road alive. Funny, touching and inspiring in equal measure, the tales he gathers on the way tell the story of modern America. With his unrivalled instinct for a good story, and the gregariousness that has made him a comedy legend, Billy Connolly is the ultimate guide to the ultimate road trip.

Snickerdoodle

Snickerdoodle
Author: Clare Ham Grosgebauer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005
Genre: Folklore
ISBN: 9780974188829

The story of a "pee-wee" who rides in a peanut and manages to overcome big odds and outwit the "bad guy" with humor.

Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village

Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village
Author: Maureen Johnson
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2021-09-14
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1984859625

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Considering a trip to a quaint English village? You’ll think twice after learning about the countless murderous possibilities lurking behind the bucolic façades, thanks to this illustrated guide from #1 bestselling author Maureen Johnson and illustrator Jay Cooper—perfect for fans of cozy mysteries. A weekend roaming narrow old lanes, touring the faded glories of a country manor, and quaffing pints in the pub. How charming. That is, unless you have the misfortune of finding yourself in an English Murder Village, where danger lurks around each picturesque cobblestone corner and every sip of tea may be your last. If you insist on your travels, do yourself a favor and bring a copy of this little book. It may just keep you alive. Brought to life with dozens of Gorey-esque drawings by illustrator Jay Cooper and peppered with allusions to classic crime series and unmistakably British murder lore, Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village gives you the tools you need to avoid the same fate, should you find yourself in a suspiciously cozy English village (or simply dream of going). Good luck! And whatever you do, avoid the vicar.

Billy Connolly's Tracks Across America

Billy Connolly's Tracks Across America
Author: Billy Connolly
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2016-03-31
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 075156415X

An epic trip across America with much-loved national treasure and comedy legend, Billy Connolly Billy Connolly has spent much of his life in the United States, where he now lives. It's a country he knows and loves a great deal, but even someone as well-travelled as Billy can always discover new things about such a vast nation. So he's off on the move again, this time via the tracks of the great railroads that helped to build the country. Billy's adventure takes him on an incredible trip through the backyard of America, tracing the routes taken by the first European settlers westwards from Chicago to California, then back down south and eastwards through Arizona, Texas, Alabama and finally New York, over 6,000 miles and 26 states later. It's a journey through a country you don't get to see from 30,000 feet in the air - the real America of friendly people with fascinating tales to tell which not only give us an insight into their lives, but also into the life of their great homeland. And it's a journey that couldn't be shared with a more entertaining companion. Hop aboard and join Billy on a trip you'll never forget. Update: Type size issue in ebook now fixed.

The Deep Range

The Deep Range
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2012-11-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0795325096

A man discovers the planet’s destiny in the ocean’s depths in this near-future novel by one of the twentieth century’s greatest science fiction authors. In the very near future, humanity has fully harnessed the sea’s immense potential, employing advanced sonar technology to control and harvest untold resources for human consumption. It is a world where gigantic whale herds are tended by submariners and vast plankton farms stave off the threat of hunger. Former space engineer Walter Franklin has been assigned to a submarine patrol. Initially indifferent to his new station, if not bored by his daily routines, Walter soon becomes fascinated by the sea’s mysteries. The more his explorations deepen, the more he comes to understand man’s true place in nature—and the unique role he will soon play in humanity’s future. A lasting testament to Arthur C. Clarke’s prescient and powerful imagination, The Deep Range is a classic work of science fiction that remains deeply relevant to our times.

Riding the Elephant

Riding the Elephant
Author: Craig Ferguson
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2019-05-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0525533931

From the comedian, actor, and former host of The Late Late Show comes an irreverent, lyrical memoir in essays featuring his signature wit. Craig Ferguson has defied the odds his entire life. He has failed when he should have succeeded and succeeded when he should have failed. The fact that he is neither dead nor in a locked facility (at the time of printing) is something of a miracle in itself. In Craig’s candid and revealing memoir, readers will get a look into the mind and recollections of the unique and twisted Scottish American who became a national hero for pioneering the world’s first TV robot skeleton sidekick and reviving two dudes in a horse suit dancing as a form of entertainment. In Riding the Elephant, there are some stories that are too graphic for television, too politically incorrect for social media, or too meditative for a stand-up comedy performance. Craig discusses his deep love for his native Scotland, examines his profound psychic change brought on by fatherhood, and looks at aging and mortality with a perspective that he was incapable of as a younger man. Each story is strung together in a colorful tapestry that ultimately reveals a complicated man who has learned to process—and even enjoy—the unusual trajectory of his life.