It made me smile, moved and thoroughly enjoyed this well told story.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Fred has a reunion party at a stately home for his fortieth. He’d quite like to tell Heather how he feels about how he crushed on her in college.. He tells of his no holds barred memoir writing . Heather can think only of the consequences to her foreign correspondent career…When the manuscript disappears there’s a HooHa and the resident pig has also gone . With mishaps galore the friends can’t ignore it’s one unforgettable party….well written , fun story. I was forward this book and I’m leaving my review voluntarily and in my own words

A diverting enough read. Certainly fans of P.G.Wodehouse will appreciate this homage, a reunion of friends for a 40th birthday in a (rented) country house. A variety of characters, a memoir that everyone fears will expose secrets best kept hidden and, of course, a pig.

It was OK, but I just didn't really connect with it. Somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars for me.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

How enjoyable! A really good, old fashioned farce with a little bit of mystery thrown in for good measure. Shakespeare has a delightful sense of humour and created some interesting characters. A good read for lazy afternoons!

A wonderful Wodehouse type of novel.Fred is turning forty he gathers his friends together at a stately home. When Fred tells them he is writing his memoirs the reaction is not what he expected.I enjoyed this story from beginning to end,#netgalley # duckworth

Country solicitor Fred has hired a stunning house for his fortieth birthday party and invited his nearest and dearest. Each comes with their own baggage but when Fred announces that he has written a memoir some are more worried than others. As Fred confronts his own demons, his friends and family show their true colours.
At a very simple level I really enjoyed this book. It wears its homage to PGWodehouse blatently, and not just in the use of a pig as a key character, and that's no bad thing. It's funny but almost feels funny by numbers, there are no plot twists, it's predictable. I enjoyed it but was glad it was short!

Fred is turning 40 and get his friends together to celebrate at a statelyhome. He’s also been writing his memoirs. But it goes missing under strange circumstances. The local pig seems to play a big part. It’s hilarious how things can go so wrong. Well worth a read

Set around a weekend spent celebrating Fred's 40th birthday with a number of interesting characters. A humorous story in the style of PG Woodhouse. Not for me a laugh out loud but very amusing and easy to read well written book. Definitely potential for a sequel which I would enjoy reading. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the introduction to Tom Shakespeare in my role as ARC.

Fred is on the cusp of turning 40. Something he is not looking forward to, but something he wishes to celebrate nonetheless. So he goes all in, hires out a stately home and invites a motley crew of nearest and dearest, including long time crush (love of his life) Heather. Also present is his literary agent cos, you see, Fred is currently writing his memoirs, a volume that HE promises will be warts and all, but which OTHERS might not be as keen to see the light of day... So, it will be no surprise to the reader that the only physical and digital copy (reasons but also a very important plot point) both go missing - shock horror gasp!
And so begins a delightful cosyish (pigs aside) romp set in beautiful surroundings, and starring a bonkersly eclectic bunch of misfits (characters) all enacting some rather humorous and occasionally cringey scenarios as they try and either hide or figure out what in the heck is really going on...
It has been likened by other reviewers to several other authors, none of whom I have read extensively so I myself can't comment on that side of things, but read in isolation of all that it was, for me, a pretty darned goo read which kept me well entertained and also quite excited to see what the author will serve up for next time.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

A very English, Wodehousian weekend house party descends into chaos when it becomes known that the host is writing his memoirs. Most of the guests have a reason to hope they never see the light of day leading to frenzied blundering around to destroy the manuscript. Loved the pig!

This book is absolutely brilliant. In the style of P G Wodehouse, but updated, this country house weekend gathering of old university friends is craftily plotted and hilarious. The cast of characters each have their own flaws and some are very relatable. I sincerely hope Tom Shakespeare is busy writing his next novel, because I want to read more like this!

I thank the publisher and NetGalleyUK for an advance review copy of this book in return for a fair review.
I enjoyed this rather gentle comedic novel but I think the description of it as "farcical" and the mentioning of it in the same breath as Wodehouse are less than accurate. It is a well structured entertainment, Yes there are elements of farce but without the sadness and the sense of inevitability that real farce demands. The characters are ok but are not quite eccentric enough to compare to the great PG's cast lists.
If you pick it up, I am sure you will enjoy it!

The Ha-Ha by Tom Shakespeare is a clever, witty and just plain fun book written with P. G. Wodehouse tropes. Fred Twistleton has reached a milestone, his fortieth birthday. What better way to celebrate than with friends at a manor? It's always fun until someone loses an eye...or reputation. Fred has written about the attendees and they're not all enamored by the idea.

The reader is treated to snippets of Fred's crush on Heather, a manuscript problem and an eccentric pig. Freya, my favourite character, is only eight with has the requisite childhood curiosity and the insight and sense of an adult. Though many adults lack sense, especially here. But the characters and storyline are meant to be absurd and tongue-in-cheek. I like the mystery bits, too.

When Wodehouse, one of my most treasured authors is mentioned, expectations of pure joy prance through my head. Shakespeare has his own humorous writing style but it didn't capture my heart or make me giggle. It's just different, as it should be. Still enjoyable reading, chock full of funnyisms in every nook and cranny. Eccentric characters provide escapism and amusement, and we all know at least one or two of them. This relatability is comfy, and British charm always grabs me.

Though I liked this book, I am not besotted. But it intrigues me enough to read more by this author.

My sincere thank you to Duckworth and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this rompish novel.

This was a lovely tale, Fred wants to please all his old friends gathered for his 40th birthday weekend, but when he lets slip he has written a memoir about their collective youth, not everyone is happy. The characters were mainly well drawn, and there seemed to be scope for a sequel or two!

Okay, first let me say that I read a lot of murder mysteries and thrillers and I had this book on my e-reader for a week or so before I started reading it. Consequently I had forgotten what it was supposed to be about and I admit that I was at least half way through before I realised that it’s not trying to emulate a typical Agatha Christie country house whodunit as surely there should be a few bodies by then.
This novel is meant to emulate the classic humour of PG Wodehouse and I suppose to some extent it does, but like Wodehouse it doesn’t make me laugh. Having said all this I did in fact find it a fairly entertaining read.

A tongue in cheek homage to P G Woodhouse. Wheelchair-bound Fred has invited a group of friends and family to a country house for the weekend. They’re a motley group from a budding politician to a famous film star. Discovering that he has started writing his memoirs makes some of them wary in case he mentions certain things in their own past that they would rather forget. Very P G Woodhouse. There’s even a pig!

Thank you for letting me read this book! I enjoyed it! I got a little lost in a few places since it was written for a British audience (which I am not). I’m grateful I got to read this so I learned more about this amazing author as well!

If P.G. Wodehose and Guy Bellamy had worked on a book together I imagine it would be something like this.
Full of eccentric characters and implausible but funny situations this is the perfect book to lift your spirits.
I found myself engrossed and really invested in the characters who the author manages to bring to life so that you feel you almost know them personally.
You will also find yourself thinking "that person reminds me of..." more than once.
I know I did.
There are not enough humour books written but this one is a worthy addition.

When you write a novel larded with P.G. Wodehouse tropes -- a gathering at a country house; a scandalous unpublished memoir; names like Threepwood, Twistleton and Eulalie; and a pampered pig with an immense appetite -- and if you intend to do a Wodehouse impersonation, it had better be *very* good so you aren't merely emphasizing the difference between you and arguably the funniest writer in the English language. I imagine this is something the Wodehouse estate, after commissioning a few latter-day Jeeves novels, has learned. There's no way of getting good Wodehouse prose anymore short of necromancy.

Fortunately, Tom Shakespeare doesn't attempt an impersonation. His Wodehouse-isms don't weigh down what turns out to be a funny, completely enjoyable story on its own terms about a gathering of college friends, now entering middle age, at a rented stately home to mark one of the group's 40th birthday.

There's (among others) a minor Labour politician and a newspaper columnist, sourly married; a beautiful, globetrotting TV news reporter; an underachieving loner who lives in his van; a psychiatrist and his glamorous Costa Rican boyfriend, whose interests include, ominously, both patisserie and poisonous frogs; and a literary agent who thinks the manuscript, written by the birthday boy, a rural lawyer, is publishable. Several of the others, fearing the tales of youthful adventure that might be exposed, plan to ensure it never crosses a publisher's desk.

The lawyer has used a wheelchair since a horrific traffic accident near a nudist colony 20 years ago that left him with an unshakeable terror of naked women. Will he ever find fulfillment as an author and/or lover? Shakespeare keeps the tone light. He has a knack for similes ("Polly now heard and looked across at the two men, who both stood ... waving their arms and gesticulating, as if age had not been kind to one third of the Village People," and, of a man covered with lipstick marks after a tryst, "Queasy and furious in equal measure, his face looked like a watermelon that had been dropped from a great height"). He also knows something about certain types of friendship:

"Ever since the Accident, poor Fred has connected nudity with disaster. ... Fred now finds nudity very traumatic. On top of being unable to walk, relationships are no end of trouble."

"That's wonderful!" Sophia exclaimed, before quickly correcting herself. "I mean, what an awful story!"

All in all, maybe a more enjoyable Wodehouse tribute than the official ones by Sebastian Faulks and Ben Schott.

I spent an amusing couple of days immersed in the story Fred And his long-term friends who he is invited to a rented, stately home for a weekend celebration for his 40th birthday. There’s a whole cast of characters all with the amusing quirks, Fred himself was paralysed after a serious road traffic accident . Luckily, the houses wheelchair accessible as of the gardens were quite a lot of the activity happens.
The book is Light and entertaining,you do have to suspend your disbelief, a little bit for example, when one of the main characters vomits every time he sees a naked woman after being involved in a disastrous car crash in a nudist but this is what good writing allows you to do, you think this is ridiculous but nevertheless thoroughly enjoy it . The characters are instantly recognisable, perhaps you’ve seen them on a an episode of a TV drama, think Doctors without the medical stuff or Midsomer murders. The fact that you immediately recognise this cast of characters makes them somehow even more enjoyable.
The author has an easily read writing style. The book was a an enjoyable comfort read . There were some truly ridiculous sentences “rippling tintabulation “made me snigger and amusing characters such as the seven year-old daughter of one of the friends who spends the weekend chasing around house guests to find someone to listen to her recorder playing .Even the song that she’s playing Frère Jacques would raise a smile on anyone whose children had learnt the recorder.
The book is well crafted and describes the weekend as it happens, there’s a backward sort of mystery where we know who’s stolen something and watch as they blunder on with their ridiculous plan Without giving away any spoilers, Vietnamese, potbellied pig scene on the front of the book plays an important part. I really enjoyed the end, quite perfect.
I think this book would be just the thing to pack if you’re going on a weekend getaway somewhere in the UK it’s delightfully British, eccentric fun and unless you are a really slow reader you’ll be able to finish it in a weekend.
It’s not often that I read a novel written by somebody who I know anything about in real life, Tom Shakespeare has really used his own experiences and background to enhance his novel I know he is an experienced writer and journalist, but I believe this is his first novel .I hope he’s writing more because I for one will be looking out for his next one.
I read an early copy of the book on NetGalley UK. The book is published on the 28th of March 2024 by Duckworth Farrago books.
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK, Goodreads, and my book, blog, bionicSarahSbooks.Wordpress.com after publication the review will also appear on Amazon, UK