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Synopsis

Following from his comic-fantasy anthologies The Wizards of Odd and The Flying Sorcerers, Peter Haining presents a third collection of oddities, now with a somewhat wider scope. Besides funny fantasy and SF, these 24 stories include absurdism, allegory, historical tomfoolery, and even offbeat crime fiction. They range from inevitable names like Terry Pratchett--here with an SF riff on the old mystery of why or how the chicken crossed the road--to unlikely ones like L. Frank Baum of Oz fame, who contributes a wholly uncomic murder story.

Jerome K. Jerome spoofs SF's utopian socialist futures, Robert Bloch introduces a Tuxedo of Invisibility into the lowlife world of Damon Runyon, Ray Bradbury is exuberantly funny about low-budget SF/horror movies, Peter Beagle explores the embarrassments of being a lady werewolf's boyfriend, Mark Twain deliberately paints his daft medieval-romance plot into a corner, John Kendrick Bangs invents a new and silly Munchausen adventure, and Gene Wolfe actually lives up to his splendid title "How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion." It's a wildly eclectic mix, whose famous names also include Woody Allen, G.K. Chesterton, Philip K. Dick, Mervyn Peake, Spike Milligan, A.A. Milne, Peter Sellers, and James Thurber.

Everyone has different views on what's funny and what isn't, and some of Haining's choices seem eccentric--but most readers should find enough chuckles in this plump anthology to make it well worth the price of admission. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Peter Haining
• Hollywood Chickens - (1990) - short story by Terry Pratchett
• The New Utopia - (1891) - short story by Jerome K. Jerome
• The Angry Street - [Club of Queer Trades] - (1972) - short story by G. K. Chesterton (variant of A Somewhat Improbable Story 1908)
• The Party at Lady Cusp-Canine's - (1969) - short story by Mervyn Peake
• The Little Man Who Wasn't All There - [Lefty Feep] - (1942) - short story by Robert Bloch
• The Year the Glop-Monster Won the Golden Lion at Cannes - (1966) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• Lila the Werewolf - [Sam Farrell] - (1969) - novelette by Peter S. Beagle
• The War with the Fnools - (1964) - short story by Philip K. Dick
• The Creation According to Spike Milligan - (1989) - short story by Spike Milligan
• Mediaeval Romance - (1871) - short story by Mark Twain
• Ethelred the Unready - (unknown) - short story by Ben Travers
• Dream Damsel - (1954) - short story by Evan Hunter
• Three Months in a Balloon - (1901) - short story by John Kendrick Bangs
• How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion - (1973) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• Fifi and the Chilean Truffle - (1955) - short story by Orson Welles
• The Wastrel - (1963) - short story by Peter Sellers (actor)
• Stirring the Pot - (1994) - short story by Tom Sharpe
• The Suicide of Kiaros - (1897) - short story by L. Frank Baum
• The Rape of the Sherlock - [Sherlock Holmes] - short story by A. A. Milne
• The White Rabbit Caper - (1949) - short story by James Thurber
• Wot the Eye Don't See - (1998) - short story by Stan McMurtry
• The Condemned - (1977) - short story by Woody Allen
• The Mulligan Stew - (1979) - short story by Donald E. Westlake
• The Dulwich Assassins - (1997) - short story by David L. Stone

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