NewsBiscuit

Publishers are busy reinventing the ‘crap childhood’ genre, trying to breathe life into a tired old format by going upmarket. ‘Readers have become bored with all that working class misery’, says publisher Samantha de Lyle. ‘They’re fed up with clogs, shawls, bad weather and grinding poverty. When confronted by yet another tale of a young girl living in squalor in some Irish hovel, while her drunken father molests her and passes her round amongst his friends, readers are rolling their eyes and saying ‘enough’.’

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Posted: Mar 29th, 2013
More from News In Brief

The government has announced a relaxation of current planning laws in England, removing the requirement for people to get permission from local planning officers for any house extension up to the size of two runways big enough to land Airbus A380 passenger jets in their back garden.

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Posted: Sep 10th, 2012
More from News In Brief

‘Many men over 35 years old and of Anglo origin see killing three or more people over a period of some months as ‘easy meat’.’

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Posted: Jan 8th, 2011
More from Politics

Experts warn that strike action could cripple vital public services such as Parent Teacher Association fetes and the continued administration of the Home Counties dinner party circuit.

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Posted: Oct 5th, 2010
More from UK News

Bob the Builder was the highest profile casualty this week as children’s TV channel Cbeebies responded to the demands of its aggressively guilt-ridden parent viewers to ditch the glamorisation of working- to lower-middle class jobs in favour of animated characters pursuing careers ‘that make risking negative equity to get in the right school’s catchment area worthwhile’. As part of a new commitment to quality the BBC has cancelled all shows starring members of the construction industry, postal workers, or ‘any job where there’s a chance their children could be unionised’.

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Posted: Apr 5th, 2010
More from Arts/Entertainment