Books to cheer you up: from P.G. Wodehouse to Kingsley Amis

The days are short, the nights are dark and the temperature is freezing. Oh, and in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re in an indefinite lockdown that shows no discernible signs of coming to an end. With most other pursuits thus denied to us, now is the perfect time to immerse yourself in a good book. But sometimes, the improving but ‘difficult’ literary novel or the tense crime thriller isn’t entirely what you want. Instead, here are seven recommendations for a purely entertaining read.

Most, if not quite all, are laugh-out-loud funny, but there are quieter and sadder moments along the way, too, just like in life. By the end of these tomes, it’s a rare reader who won’t feel better for having immersed themselves in a world that, whether it’s anthropomorphic animals frolicking by the Thames, a fearful junior history lecturer making a hash of his job or the adventures of a mad aristocratic family, seems a much nicer one to spend some time in than the one that we’re all inhabiting now.