You Really Couldn't Make It Up: More Hilarious Bizarre-but-True Stories from Around Britain

by Jack Crossley

After the runaway success of You Couldn't Make It Up, Jack Crossley has compiled a second selection of anecdotes from around the British Isles. In his many years as a newspaper journalist, Jack Crossley has collected literally thousands of these strange-but-true newspaper items. They are stories that you wouldn't believe if they weren't written down in black and white. You Really Couldn't Make It Up is another wonderful collection of irresistible whimsy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor

323 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather entertaining collections of snippets, clips and anecdotes from around the UK that shows how utterly eccentric and mildly insane we all really are. Covering every aspect of life from sports, the media to the strange ways of children, men and women as well as the legal system, politics and religion, Crossley has pulled together a superb collection that can be enjoyed again and again.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sign on door of a repair shop:
We can fix anything. Please knock on the door, the bell is broken

Mildly amusing anecdotes & excerpts from newspapers. Nothing really laugh-out-loud funny but plenty will make you smirk....& others will make you shake your head & wonder what the world is coming to. What I'd call a "bathroom book" - ideal for dipping in & out of :o)

[Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

In theory You Really Couldn't Make It Up is a series of excerpts from various local and national newspapers, all of which are supposed to leave the reader going "Well, crikey. You really couldn't make it up!"

Admittedly, given the author, that sounds like its going to be a series of excerpts from the Daily Mail along the lines of "Gay asylum seeker kills Diana then given car by council." And occasionally it does lapse into that style. Those occasions are sufficient to stop the book being funny, which is kind of a shame since when it's recounting quaint little stories it's actually both funny and quite nice. Stories about a town meeting on how to deal with public apathy being attended by only four people and the such like started to tickle my funny bone. And then there'd be a whole chapter on how today's kids aren't allowed to eat their school dinner without wearing safety goggles and a hard hat, all with undertones on how it was political correctness gone mad, and my mirth would need restarting all over again.

[Mac.Hawk · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compilation of humourous anecdotes/stories/facts that is best read in bits as it gets a bit 'samey' if you read it in one go.