The New York Times called the Guardian's Digested Read column "the best book-related feature in any of this planet's English-language newspapers." Now creator John Crace takes on 100 great--and not so great--classics of modern literature. John Crace's Digested Read column has rightly acquired a cult following. Each week fans avidly devour his latest razor-sharp literary assassination, while authors turn tremblingly to the appropriate page of the review section, fearful that it may be their turn to be mercilessly sent up. Now he turns his critical eye on the classics of...

Give me the daggers and I ll pin the blame/ On Duncan s grooms who both are also slain. /A little water clears us of this deed /Though a large scotch might also do the trick... To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, this is the first of a new collection of the Bard's greatest plays, digested to a few thousand words with invaluable side notes from John Sutherland. Funny and incredibly clever, these parodies are a joy for those who know their Shakespeare, perfect for the theatre goer needing a quick recap, and a massive relief for those just desperate to pass their English...

Cease I say, cantankerous old fools /
Thy deeds hath made our streets a no go zone /
No more shall Montagues and Capulets /
Enact their West Side Story Sharks and Jets /
Or else shall pay the forfeit of the peace.To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, this is the second of a new collection of the Bard's greatest plays, digested to a few thousand words with invaluable footnotes from John Sutherland. Funny and incredibly clever, these parodies are a joy for those who know their Shakespeare, perfect for teh theatre goer needing a quick recap, and a massive relief...

Was Rochester a murderer? Did the Reverend Bronte carry a loaded pistol? What, precisely, does Wuthering mean? Did the Brontes all have tiny feet?
To celebrate the bicentenary of Charlotte Bronte s birth, eminent Victorian scholar John Sutherland takes us on an A to Z ramble through the world of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte (and not forgetting their dissolute brother Branwell).
For fans of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, here is a lighthearted miscellany freighted with a working lifetime s scholarly expertise. With his reputation for...

NEW, FULLY UPDATED EDITION 'Brexit means Brexit.' 'Strong and stable.' 'I don't think I'm in the least robotic.' Ever since Theresa May first whirred into inaction as prime minister, there has only been one reliable source of strength and stability: John Crace's political sketches for the Guardian. These doses of biting satire not only provided much-needed respite from the madness of it all, but also gave us his now notorious moniker for our automaton PM, the Maybot. In I, Maybot, Crace introduces a curated selection of his most acerbic sketches, charting May's tumultuous premiership...

'Optimism, mojo, complete bollocks. That's what the country is crying out for.' There is now only one certainty in life. When things can't possibly get worse, they absolutely will. And so, after three years of Maybot malfunctioning and Brexit bungling, welcome to BoJo the clown's national circus - where fun for none of the family is guaranteed. Fear not, however: Decline and Fail is your personal survival guide to the ongoing political apocalypse. This unremittingly entertaining collection of John Crace's lifegiving political sketches will get you through the darkest of days - or...