Packed full of funny Christmas poems, parodies and nonsense verse by contemporary UK poets Max Scratchmann, Paul Curtis and Patrick Winstanley, The Peculiar Poetry Collection of Funny Christmas Verse distills the true spirit of Christmas - comic, misanthropic, dyspeptic, or sometimes just sick. The collection is presented chronologically, taking the reader in seven easy leaps from the eager anticipation of Christmas, through the fun and festivities, to the bitter aftertaste. Meet Pip, the ineffably jolly penguin who gets on everyone's tits, revel in the feminist retelling of the story of The Three Wise Men and discover the feminine hygiene product set to be a Christmas sensation. Oddly compelling and compellingly odd, you'll enjoy a roller coaster ride through the festive peaks - drinking, feasting and flirtation - and troughs - hangovers, religion and relations - in an anthology overflowing with Christmas good cheer. Perfect as a present for a hard to please relative (any relative ), a secret Santa gift for a colleague, or a small indulgence for oneself, The Peculiar Poetry Collection of Funny Christmas Verse is ribald, riotous and on occasion very rude.

Shoeboy in Pumpkin Land is a wonderfully surreal and Carrollesque opera for young people, brought to you by the wacky partnership of mad lyricist, Max Scratchmann, and round-the-bend composer, Michael Dyer. Dealing with the joint themes of alienation and acceptance in a darkly comic manner, this easy-to-stage one-act opera is the perfect vehicle for schools and/or youth theatre companies seeking to help children confront serious issues in a fun way. Jasper Jedd is an ordinary boy except for one little thing - he is born with a shoe for a head! And in this feast of devilish wit and roguish musical creativity he sets off on a journey through the dark forest of the fearsome Ginkle Snicks to find the mythical Pumpkin Land, where he hopes he'll finally fit in...(Duration: 35 minutes) The cover price of this libretto includes photocopying rights for one production.

Meet the Pobble who has all his toes, share the Fish Supper of J Alfred Prufrock and discover the lost manuscript of a poem penned by Edgar Allen Poe on his visit to the Raven Hotel, Blackpool. My Rubber Hebrew Nose is a hilariously insane collection of literary parody and nonsense verse, written and superbly illustrated by British humorist, Max Scratchmann, in the great tradition of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. Come and join some literary greats and their sexually deviant maiden aunts, as well as a stellar supporting cast of horrible children and errant vicars, proving, if proof were ever needed, that British comic verse is truly for life and not just for Christmas.

Named one of the twelve best travel books of 2009 by Worldhum, Chucking It All exposes the gritty reality behind all those twee bestsellers which extol the joys of sunny rural idylls. With its remorseless true-life account of downshifting to a remote Scottish island, Chucking It All uncovers the frightening realities of relocating to "a magical island lost in the mists of time" as you follow the warts-and-all adventures of urban misanthrope, Max Scratchmann, as he valiantly tries to forge a new life in the windswept Orkney islands, and grumbles his way through unending winters with eighteen-hour nights, nocturnal visits from drunken farmers and booty calls from desperate divorcees. From struggling to fit in as a temporary postman in a wilderness where houses don't display numbers or names, to attending drunken country ceilidhs with the island singles' club, or finding himself up to the neck in local politics while performing in the village pantomime, Chucking It All is an urbanite's nightmare and one of the most hilarious books that you will read this year. Irreverent, sarcastic and bitingly caustic, Chucking It All still manages to be a grudgingly affectionate portrait of rural life through the eyes of a cynical outsider, and is one of the truest accounts of "living the dream" ever published. "Does for downshifting what Lewinsky did for Clinton - only much funnier..."