The Ha-Ha by Tom Shakespeare

 The Ha-Ha

 by Tom Shakespeare

The Ha-Ha by Tom Shakespeare was published on 28th March 2024 by Farrago.

My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour.

Synopsis

A delightfully funny and inclusive novel from Tom Shakespeare, author, academic and broadcaster

Meet Fred.

He is about to turn forty and has invited an eclectic group of friends to celebrate at a rented stately home. He is a wheelchair user after being paralysed in a road traffic accident, has been busy at work at his memoir and is longing to reconnect with long-standing university crush, Heather, a high-flying TV foreign correspondent. What should have been a jolly weekend in the country starts getting decidedly more complicated when Heather realises that the publication of Fred’s book could threaten her career ambitions.

The Ha-Ha is a thoroughly engaging and very entertaining novel about friendship, sex, hallucinogenic drugs, marriage and putting the past behind you. There is also a very hungry pig who may or may not have eaten Fred’s stolen memoir.

It also proves that you can write about disability without making a big fuss of disability and that you can pay tribute to the immortal world of Blandings without ever including a PG Wodehouse character.

My Review

This is a really funny, tongue in cheek, story that pays homage to the novels of P.G Woodhouse. You will find yourself becoming a super sleuth as you endeavour to help them solve the mystery of the missing manuscript and the "House" pig during this strange reunion of friends at Tom's Fortieth Birthday bash, many of whom are a little anxious at the prospect of the manuscript being published and getting out into the public domain.

The characters within the novel are cleverly written to address different elements of race, equality, disability and sexuality; making this a modern and up to date read without there being a strong focus on any one aspect.

You will find yourself laughing out loud and having to explain why to anyone else who may be in the room with you!!! Groaning at the ludicrous situations created by the characters. But most of all you will find yourself fully engrossed in this compelling read that will allow you time to escape into hilarity and comedic story telling. So sit back, pick up the book , and enjoy.

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/