Humour

Ever since Chaucer’s day, when the host of the Tabard Inn in Southwark rose to welcome the Canterbury Pilgrims with a joke, the After Dinner Speech, designed, if possible, to reduce the assembled company to helpless merriment, has presented the ultimate challenge.

A fine edition of the celebrated limited edition, featuring an additional binding illustration by Quentin Blake.

An exclusive collection of poems and prose, with authors ranging from Charles Dickens to Matsuo Bashō.

A gloriously biting and witty story of an aristocratic family in decline. With their country seat falling apart, servants revolting and the bills mounting, all that the St Charles family will soon have left to rely on are their impeccable manners.

The glamorous, unconventional fascist Miss Jean Brodie in Muriel Spark's classic novel is brought vividly to life with illustrations by Beryl Cook

Featuring giants, duels, man-eating swamp rats and, of course, true love, Goldman's funny and poignant lampoon of the fairy-tale tradition has inadvertently become a classic of the genre.

What happens to gods when their believers stop believing? Published in series with Mort, this edition of one of the most celebrated Discworld novels features brilliant illustrations by Omar Rayyan.

Set in 1960s Haiti, this darkly comic thriller is introduced by award-winning journalist Francis Wheen.

A wickedly dry and witty collection of stories, satires, travel pieces, speeches, letters and anecdotes from Mark Twain.

This is the first volume of the Barsetshire Chronicles, and arguably Trollope’s most celebrated work.

My Family and Other Animals is Gerald Durrell’s hilarious memoir of his unconventional 1930s Corfu childhood, enriched with illustrations by Paul Cox and an introduction by Michael Morpurgo.

The collector’s edition of Cyrano de Bergerac’s wildly inventive early sci-fi classics – revisited and enhanced by Folio Society favourite Quentin Blake.

An enchanting selection of prose and poetry inspired by summer, with commissioned illustrations and binding.

A cycling jaunt in Germany provides the backdrop for this laugh-out-loud novel from the master of Victorian quick wit; the escapades beautifully illustrated by Paul Cox.

Our seasonal anthologies of prose, poetry, diary entries and musings are brought together in a beautiful set for gifting or collecting and illustrated throughout with Petra Börner’s nature-inspired designs.

With witty illustrations by Quentin Blake, Waugh’s satiric novel about the perils of modernisation receives the Folio Collectable treatment.

With their outrageous tastes and boundless energy, the Larkins have charmed many a reader. Alice Tait’s illustrations for Folio capture the epicurean excesses of this flamboyant family.

A comedy masterpiece is given the Folio Collectables treatment, featuring the full set of original illustrations.

One of the first books in the Folio Collectables range, this glamorous edition combines Lorelei Lee's scandalous jazz-age diaries with witty drawings by ffolkes.

With a new introduction by the author, this brilliantly funny ghost story for children features integrated illustrations by artist Pam Smy.

They are what Churchill called ‘the gleaming toys of history’ – a collection of entertaining stories, many of them biographical, that light up past and present and fix them in our memories.

Green’s parody of the country-house novel describes the life above and below stairs in Kinalty Castle, an isolated ‘gothic pile’. A modern classic brought to life with illustrations by Christopher Corr.

Evelyn Waugh's mordant satire on the funeral industry is illustrated with paintings by the great Beryl Cook OBE.

The ‘Bright Young Things’ of 1920s London pursue debauchery and abandon in this most scathing of satires.

A hilarious novel from the master of satire and irony. Factory manager Hank finds himself transported to legendary Camelot, but soon discovers that King Arthur’s court isn’t quite as chivalrous as he thought.

A satisfying collection of deliciously dark tales, from the unrivalled master of the comic short story – perfect for savouring one by one, or gobbled up in a single sitting.

Produced in series with the novels of Jeeves and Wooster previously published by The Folio Society, these three volumes of stories form a delicious addition for fans, or a superb introduction for those not yet acquainted with the delights of Wodehouse.

The much-loved comedy classic, richly illustrated with exuberant drawings by Paul Cox.

A new Folio edition of Tobias Smollett’s final masterpiece, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, a hilarious road-trip through Georgian Britain, dynamically illustrated by Derrick Harris and with an introduction by John Sutherland.

Enjoy The Best of Dorothy Parker in The Folio Society’s new edition of poetry and short stories from the greatest wit of her age, with the era-defining graphic illustrations of Helen Smithson.