Presents that speak volumes

The biggest surprise of the Christmas novelty lists must be Flanimals by Ricky Gervais (Faber, £9.99). The creator of David Brent turns out to have an amazingly acute ear for nonsense-prose.

Rob Steen's fabulously nasty monsters are accompanied by Gervais's mock-scientific descriptions. Kids will gurgle with pleasure at creations such as 'the Clunge Ambler (Humpulous Lug). This sweaty little waddle-gimp shuffles around trying to cuddle things. It's like Life On Earth written by Edward Lear.

A more conventional spoof is David Feckham: My Backside (Orion, £6.99), the biography of a talentless footballer hoping to make it big in Spain. The pacy script by Ivor Baddiel and Jonny Zucker crackles with comic energy.

If you prefer your humour condensed into one-liners try Brit Wit (Summersdale, £7.99), a beautifully presented catalogue of jests, asides, ripostes and insults. All the usual favourites are there, along with less well-known quips such as this from Rod Stewart: 'Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house.'

And here's Jasper Carrott bemoaning DJs: 'I am firmly convinced that AM on my radio stands for Absolute Moron. I will not begin to tell you what FM stands for.'

Both could qualify as Grumpy Old Men, the cult TV series which has spawned an excellent comic rant from its producer Stuart Prebble (BBC, £9.99). It's bracing stuff. He lays into everything from ringtones to weathergirls, from Father's Day to 4x4s. Ideal hangover reading.

Keith Barret, the inept TV interviewer, has created his own successful spin-off. Making Divorce Work (Fourth Estate, £10.99) is a hilarious self-help book full of useless advice for those in failing relationships. Just the kind of thing Adrian Mole might have benefited from.

In fact, Leicester's unsung Poet Laureate returns in Adrian Mole And The Weapons Of Mass Destruction (Penguin, £16.99). This joyous satire reinforces Sue Townsend's position as the absolute monarch of comic fiction.