The Ha-Ha
By Tom Shakespeare

The Ha-Ha is a humorous social comedy book, in a P.G. Wodehouse sort of way with eccentric characters and poignancy. Discover the blurb and review as part of the RandomTTours blog tour as you wheel down the page to a country house setting… Discover more about Tom Shakespeare too, he seems an interesting guy, who’s done a lot.

Blurb

A modern country house farce with a diverse cast of characters

Fred Twistleton is about to turn forty. Gathering with his friends to celebrate at a rented stately home, he finally hopes to get together with his college crush, the woman of his dreams, Heather. But Fred is also keen to publish his memoirs, and Heather realises the revelations they contain could threaten her career as a high-flying foreign correspondent.

When the treasured manuscript goes missing under mysterious circumstances, Fred’s at a loss. Could someone have stolen it? Where has the resident pig gone? And will all the group remain friends by the end of the weekend? With burst pipes, sunken kayaks, and suspicious puddings, thank goodness Fred is only going to have one fortieth birthday.

Praise for The Ha-Ha

‘A beautifully observed and highly entertaining tale. Tom Shakespeare is a fine comic writer’ Alexander McCall Smith

‘A blissful social comedy, stuffed with cherishable lines’ Lissa Evans

Review

Turning 40, wheelchair bound Fred (which has, uniquely, given the author an opportunity to show the needs a wheelchair user may have. I know as my mum uses one and also has a zest for life), has decided it would be most fitting to rent a stately home and invite his friends, one being someone whom he had a crush on and didn’t really do anything about back at college. Now, he’s got ideas to buck up his ideas and do something about that. He’s also ambitious, seeing this is quite the auspicious occasion and turning such a special age, he has decided to write his memoirs. So far, all plans are moving in the right direction…. until they don’t and so much that could go wrong, does go wrong.

It could be a comedy of errors or like The Play That Goes Wrong, in modern terms. It, however, also feels like it could play homage to P.G. Wodehouse, with the humour and country house setting, but also with an element of Tom’s own take on the genre, giving it a fresh, modern feel. 

The Ha-Ha is a book of humour and poignancy, all brought to life through the eccentricity of its characters, some who are kind, some who are ego-centric and one pig. in the form of Sonia, a literary agent who has experience of unrequited love, an old school friend who lives in a van, a stressed social worker and more… not forgetting the mischievous pig.

There’s also the matter of manuscript of the memoir going missing. It could destroy a career. It could create tensions within this group of friends…

Ultimately the book has the feel-good factor and fun.

About the Author

Tom Shakespeare CBE is a social scientist and bioethicist, an academic who
writes and talks and researches mainly about disability, but also about ethical
issues around prenatal genetic testing and end of life assisted suicide.
Born in 1966 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, he studied at Cambridge
University and has lived in Gateshead, Geneva and Norwich, while working at
Universities of Sunderland, Leeds, Newcastle, then at World Health Organisation
in Geneva, afterwards at UEA Medical School, and presently as Professor of
Disability Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Tom has presented programmes and documentaries on BBC Radio and has
written for publications including The Guardian and The Lancet, alongside talking
to academic, professional and lay audiences around the world.
He has been a stand-up comedian, an actor, a dancer, and an artist. A father of
two grown-up children, he now lives in London. https://farmerofthoughts.co.uk/