Out of the tens of thousands of books published every year, a significant proportion are unintentionally funny or just plain loopy. Fish Who Answer the Telephone and Other Bizarre Books brings these choice works together between two covers. Extraordinary titles include: Aeroplane Designing for Amateurs; How to Draw a Straight Line; Ferret Facts and Fancies and Phone Calls from the Dead.

The contents of many of these titles are no less mind-boggling — from illustrations of different types of barbed wire, to the advice contained in Whippings and Lashings (‘always use ropes or cord of suitable thickness’ and ‘do not fumble or use fancy methods’), the oddness collected here is unrivalled.

Fish Who Answer the Telephone and Other Bizarre Books is a unique and utterly original collection of the world’s most unusual books and authors.

Featuring: full colour covers of gems such as Scouts in Bondage and Moles and their Meaning; the oddest titles, including Flashes from the Welsh Pulpit and Premature Burial and How it May Be Prevented; and the strangest authors, from Marmaduke Baglehole to Dr F.P.H Prick van Wily.

‘The perfect lavatory book. Start reading this and you’ll be in there for hours’
CHRISTOPHER MATTHEW

In the course of their careers in the business of writing and selling books, Russell Ash and Brian Lake have collected hundreds of bizarre book examples from this extensive field. This new edition of Bizarre Books is completely revised and incorporates colour illustrations for the first time.

Russell Ash is the editor of many books, among them, ‘Whitaker’s World of Facts’ and ‘The Top Ten of Everything’. Brian Lake is a partner in Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers opposite the British Museum in Bloomsbury.