WHY A SITE FOR FUNNY BOOKS? Well, we’re glad you asked. Firstly, we’re doing this because we LOVE funny books. Hey, we’re funny authors, what did you expect? Clumpy reviews of late-nineteenth century Russian novels? No. We prefer fart gags to folk weeping uncontrollably into their hands because someone’s duck died, and we’re not ashamed. Even if we should be.
Secondly – and this probably won’t come as much of a surprise - because we believe funny books are special. Cue serious bit. Try not to lose the will to go on. Why do we believe this? Most importantly, because even a small giggle reminds us of something that sometimes gets overlooked: the fact that it feels GOOD to be alive. But also because laughter is monumentally important to us human beings. Emotionally, mentally, physically: it’s healthy on every level. Laughter reduces stress, improves the immune system, makes anger disappear, sprinkles happy dust over a bad day, conjures kids into well-rounded adults and much, much more. Shared laughter brings us together and funny books are often where kids begin to discover their own particular stripe of hilarious. Whether its dark, dry, bonkers or two men fighting over a hat, a sense of humour weaves magic through our lives. Funny books are important: they’re written by wizards. Thirdly, we’re doing this because books with a strong sense of humour sometimes get a hard time. For instance, there are umpteen children’s book awards in the UK and only ONE of them is for funny books (shout out to the LOLLIES). Funny books are breaking through nowadays but they’re still too often seen as trivial, of lesser importance, not worth quite as much as “serious” books. Just because they’ve got bum jokes. Pff. (For funny writers this is infuriating by the way. Because we do all the stuff that serious writers do – plot, characters, dialogue, etc – and we make kids laugh, too.) Do we sound bitter? We’re not. But we do think the world would be a better place with more laughter. And that children’s funny books deserve a place where they’re celebrated and where they’re taken as seriously as books like Barry Tortoise Finds Out We’re All Going To Die. This site is our attempt to create that place. We will do anything else we can think of that might help put a life-affirming, wet-your-pants book in front of a child. Because that is what we live for. You’re welcome to come along for the ride. Rachel, Tris & Martin |
ABOUT THE SNORTERS
RACHEL DELAHAYE has been told she’s funny. What kind of funny - funny smelling, funny tasting, funny looking? She convinced herself it’s funny-ha-ha (although she does look a bit like Mrs Twit going through a car-wash in a convertible and often smells of gorgonzola, due to her love affair with, um, gorgonzola). Rachel laughs in the face of death with her dark comedy series Jim Reaper, which contains angry grannies, funfair owners with fake Italian accents, and the trials of accidentally killing the babysitter – which is totally hilarious (unless you’re a babysitter). Rachel also co-wrote a jokebook called The Daily Joker with Gareth P Jones, full of original, handmade, tongue-rolled jokes of varying quality. And she has written a range of other less funny but extremely good books, to boot. Do not take them to a boot sale, that’s not what I meant. Next year, her series Mort The Meek will be hitting the shelves, but very softly as it’s about a pacifist. Is it funny though? Well, it’s different, awkward, weird and wonderful. A bit tee-hee and a bit what-the? It’s funny peculiar, you could say. Which, come to think of it, is probably the kind of funny that Rachel is.
MARTIN HOWARD
never really knows what to put in this type of biography but here goes … He's sort of permanently peeved that his hair isn’t as thick and glossy as it used to be and he’s quite damp because he uses loads of moisturiser in the mistaken belief that it gives him a younger, more youthful appearance by reducing the fine lines of ageing. It really, really doesn’t. Apart from that he’s not as strange as people often think, though he did used to be a massive Goth. He plays guitar badly and has written some funny books including picture books such as a recipe book for witches called How to Cook Children, as well as Germs. He also collaborated with Aardman to write a load of Shaun the Sheep stories, and sometimes gets his lazy butt in gear to write longer books, like the Witches at War trilogy, How to Slay a Werewolf and the Alfie Fleet books: The Cosmic Atlas of Alfie Fleet and Alfie Fleet’s Guide to the Universe. There was some stuff for adults too. Frankly, he’s getting on a bit and can’t actually remember every book he’s written. There are some crackers though. He’s pretty certain of that. |
