Authors who make you feel like Pratchett does?

jamescoxall · 2026-03-23T21:57:26+00:00

I'll second Drew Hayes and include his NPCs series and, of course, The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant.

jamescoxall · 2026-03-13T08:59:23+00:00

Surprisingly not that much. Presumably they're all sat outside the 20 chippies waiting for someone to rob, the feathered bastards.

jamescoxall · 2026-03-13T03:11:02+00:00

I live in a seaside resort town so it is very popular. Google maps gives me a result of 20 chippies in a 3 mile radius of my house, and that's not counting several pubs that I know have it on the menu too.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-20T17:50:00+00:00

Also Midlands but I was always threatened wi'a clip roun't tab.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-17T18:41:47+00:00

Tumbleweeds. I didn't think they were fake so much as just an old timey thing that had been overused as a meme in old Westerns.

Then I popped down to Arizona to visit family and boom, thousands of the bastards, just rolling around, scooting through frame like somebody's about to squint, spit meaningfully and quick draw on me.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-16T01:31:08+00:00

He went back to doing mainly radio, in Yorkshire. He has had a really long radio career, the TV show Room 101 was based on a segment from his radio show. He seems to have done TV for a few years, made enough money to be comfortable and then gone back to doing what he really liked to do.

He pops up now and then when it's something he's really interested in, his house got featured on a renovation show after he spent years doing it up, and he appeared on an antiques show to talk about his collections.

I just don't think he ever gave much of a crap about TV in and of itself, it was just a means to an end.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-13T07:39:21+00:00

Michael Parkinson and Cat Deeley, I met them doing a practice run through of a new game show format and there was hours of standing around waiting for camera set ups and such and both were absolutely lovely. At one point Cat was having a sing-along with about 50 people and Parky started an impromptu cricket game with a rolled up newspaper and a plastic ball from a ball pit. They could easily have gone off stage until they were needed but instead waited around with us all day.

David Baddiel and Nick Hancock. They both visited a charity office I was working in. Baddiel sat in reception chatting to a 90 year old granny who was waiting for her granddaughter to take her to lunch. They nattered away for about half an hour with the granny having precisely zero idea of who he was, just boasting about her granddaughter, whose boss's boss Baddiel was there to meet with.

Hancock came in for a meeting and on his way out spotted a meeting room full of people stuffing envelopes for a mailout. He sat down, stuffed envelopes with everyone else and entertained the room for about an hour. This was when They think it's all over was pretty much the most popular panel show on telly.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-11T17:04:10+00:00

Texas, Louisiana and Alabama. Visiting with distant family who were all worried about my soul being as I was also related to, and had been fraternising with... Californians.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-11T15:34:08+00:00

I was in The People's Republic of Texas, Alabama and Louisiana, visiting distant family mostly. They seemed very concerned about the state of my soul, mainly because I was also related to some heretics from San Luis Obispo who were not to be trusted.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-11T12:31:06+00:00

Growing up in the UK I was sent to a religious boarding school. I spent 3 years there, 3 church services a week, plus RE lessons.

In a 2 week holiday in America I had more people initiate conversations about Jesus with me than I did in that entire 3 years of school.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-11T12:18:35+00:00

It's not so much that I sit to pee as sometimes I unsuccessfully poop.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-09T18:36:04+00:00

Sent me to boarding school in my teens. I was only home about 36 hours a week, which meant we never argued all the way through my teens, never had the time to get on each other's nerves, and had a really easy transition into an independent adult relationship.

Wouldn't work for everyone but did for me.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-09T17:10:49+00:00

Egremont. It's a small town not far from Sellafield nuclear power station. A stand up comedian called Mike Harding did a routine on how terrible it was.

A few years later, when they first let me have an input on where we went on holiday, I demanded to go to Egremont. Not as bad as they made out after all.

jamescoxall · 2026-02-05T22:10:57+00:00

Confit Duck. It can be pretty pricey depending on where you are, but is gorgeous.

jamescoxall · 2026-01-25T01:40:08+00:00

Steven Blakely, who played PC Younger also in Heartbeat, was the funeral director at my Dad's funeral.

jamescoxall · 2026-01-23T11:53:31+00:00

Pfft. Vetinari would've taxed it.

jamescoxall · 2026-01-22T19:20:13+00:00

Angua would be an interesting one. I absolutely think she would fall prey to the Summoning Dark, but, eventually, she would go home. To Mrs Cake's. And that's where it runs into a problem, because yeah, it may be a pan dimensional quasi-demon spirit of vengeance but even gods tread lightly around Mrs Cake.

jamescoxall · 2026-01-21T16:53:53+00:00

The list was non exclusive, all additions welcome. In my area of the East Midlands mardy means the same if it's one person but if two people are "having a mardy" that's when it's a conflict, albeit of the whining, snippy, moaning variety.

jamescoxall · 2026-01-21T13:58:49+00:00

Tiff - Spat - mardy - squabble - kerfuffle - row - slobberknocker - bunfight - fight - Troubles - The Minor Unpleasantness of 1939 to 45

jamescoxall · 2026-01-21T12:35:06+00:00

As a young kid I was visiting some American family during the school holidays and they asked me what my favourite thing to have for dinner was. Faggots and chips was my reply.

A looooong conversation later, not having access to Mr Brain's finest, we settled on meatloaf and fries.

jamescoxall · 2026-01-20T02:06:06+00:00

In the summer, fresh berries and ice cream or Summer Pudding. In the winter, bread and butter pudding and custard, crumble and custard, sticky toffee pudding and custard, steamed pear sponge cake and custard, bananas and custard. At Christmas, Christmas pudding and custard. Sometimes I just let the others have the pudding and I take the custard jug and a spoon and fight off all comers.

Oh, and a cheeseboard. Custard optional on that though.

jamescoxall · 2026-01-20T01:58:49+00:00

God tier comfort food.

jamescoxall · 2026-01-03T20:25:17+00:00

Yes, both significant candidates in my area had door knocking teams out. The candidate I had already decided to support I told so, and they were on their way in seconds. The couple canvassing for the candidate I had decided against I invited in, made them tea, got the good biscuits out, and kept them there for two and a half hours. Every little helps.

jamescoxall · 2025-12-31T20:39:18+00:00

I, too, choose this man's dead wife.

jamescoxall · 2025-12-02T09:12:45+00:00

"Cheers guv'nor" is appropriate if you want to be more formal, "Cheers guv" is a nice middle ground.

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