Top 5 comic novels, chosen by comedy screenwriter James Alistair Henry

James Alistair Henry has written for Channel 4’s Smack the Pony and Green Wing, as well as episodes for Bob the Builder and Hey Duggee. Here are his five favourite comic novels.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

This 1932 satirical novel parachutes calmly pragmatic Flora Poste into the lives of her distant cousins, the tragic and gothically rural Starkadders. With no time for their gloomy nonsense, Flora bewilders her cousins into materially improving their lives. 

Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen

The first of his Florida-set crime novels in which he matches rage at environmental despoilment with peerless comic writing, including endless plot twists. He also writes the best grotesque villains in the business. 

Don’t Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli

The first and best of the Charlie Mortdecai books (ignore the terrible film adaptation with Johnny Depp), in which a dissolute and amoral art dealer tries to stay one step ahead of crooked police and British intelligence. 

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett 

Pratchett fans point at Guards, Guards! or Wyrd Sisters as jumping on points to his Discworld series, but this early novel skewers fantasy genre tropes from Middle-earth to Conan the Barbarian. A constant delight. 

Frost on my Moustache by Tim Moore 

Travel writer Moore attempts to retrace Victorian adventurer Lord Dufferin’s journey to Iceland and Spitsbergen to constantly underwhelming, yet hilarious effect. 

Pagans by James Alistair Henry is out on 27 February (Moonflower Publishing, £16.99). You can buy it from the Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.

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