The Penguin Book of Women's Humour, edited by Regina Barreoa (Penguin, B.9in UK)

Regina Barreca has trawled far and wide both in time and space to make this 600 page selection; thus she can find space for both one liners from Roseanne Barr and whole pages of Jane Austen, and not only that but she can find, in her feisty and thoughtful introduction, a context which embraces both. By no means all of the humour is directed at men, though much of it derives, inevitably, from the differing attitudes of the sexes to matters which concern both. The political columnist Molly Ivins quotes an experiment in which the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood asked a group of women at a university why they felt threatened by men. The women said they were afraid of being beaten, raped, or killed by men. Atwood then asked a group of men why they felt threatened by women.

They said they were afraid women would laugh at them. Those men should read this book - they might find themselves laughing too.