Feline fine

Making The Cat Laugh: One Woman's Journal Of Single Life On The Margins by Lynne Truss (Profile, £7.99)

The woman who lives alone with only cats for company and goes quietly mad is a well-worn clichè, but Lynne Truss, author of the bestselling-Eats, Shoots And Leaves, breathes new life into the phenomenon with her wry observations on everything from the perils of phrase books to nosey house-sitters in this collection of her columns first published in 1995.

Her account of trying desperately to strike up conversation with taciturn assistants, developing an unhealthy obsession with Andre Agassi, and being patronised by happy couples reads like the sort of cautionary tale that might have Bridget Jones reaching for the bottle.

But Truss can conjure comedy from the most mundane situations, so what could be a lugubrious lament on singledom becomes instead a joyously silly celebration of the absurdity of modern life.