Looks exciting !

My Goodies Novella has finally arrived.
Took 10 days to travel from Mr B Jones' house in Gloucestershire UK to Os-tray-lee-arr (as Tim would have pronounced it!).

I never have worked out the postal code system over there, it's numbers and letters instead of just numbers like a post-code/zip (zone improvement plan) code, but I guess it works well.

https://www.chinbeardbooks.com/new-beard site said on 11 Apr that they were ½ way through posting them all out.

"Novella" - didn't really know what this meant, looking it up it says "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel" - it is 115 pages long.

Had a quick peek inside and found a reference to Banana Man on page 35-36, is this one of the Avengers the title speaks of?

No idea, all I can reveal is that the first two words in Chapter One are "look up", and the last two words in the final chapter are "anything, anytime".

So a really quick book (novella) review would be "Look Up Anything Anytime" 

Looks like the books have arrived at ChinBeardBooks going by the URL below

https://www.chinbeardbooks.com/new-beard

"They've arrived at Chinbeard Books HQ. Hurrah! They may have been delivered on a trandem, actually.

Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered. The publication date was the 1st of March, so apologies that the physical copies were a little late in getting to us."

Not sure when these actually arrived there but hoping they will be delivered soon.

Coming this March, a new Goodies novella (fully authorized by Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, and Tim Brooke-Taylor's family).  Here is more information about the title, which is available for pre-order from
https://www.chinbeardbooks.com/apps/webstore/products/show/8247210

BACKGROUND

In 2019, The Goodies reunited to record a brand-new adventure for Audible, under the guidance of producer Barnaby Eaton-Jones – who gently persuaded them to get back on their trandem bicycle.

This was called The Big Ben Theory, and was written by Gareth Gwynn and John-Luke Roberts, from a story by Barnaby Eaton-Jones, and directed by Dirk Maggs. It is still available online.

In the cast were Dame Joanna Lumley, Jon Culshaw, Kate Harbour, Philip Pope, and Barnaby Eaton-Jones – alongside The Goodies themselves; Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, and Tim Brooke-Taylor. There was even a live band and studio audience.

This audio production was so well-received and successful that a series was commissioned, with the same team behind it and retaining the same company of actors as well.

Unfortunately, due to the sad passing of Tim Brooke-Taylor in 2020, from Covid, the audio series had to be cancelled. At that stage, material had been written and The Goodies had chosen the first six (of the twelve mooted) for the debut series on audio.

NEW GOODIES!

Fast forward to 2022, and the first of those stories has been turned into novella called Avengers Dissemble, which is a semi-sequel to the audio production (though you don’t have to have listened to the audio to understand it), as it features Dame Joanna Lumley – who has also written a beautiful and funny foreword for this book. This novella has been specifically produced by Chinbeard Books as a tribute to Tim Brooke-Taylor and 25% of the royalties will be going to the charity he was President of for over 25 years – Thames Valley Adventure Playground (who celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2022). You can read all about what they do here: https://www.tvap.co.uk/

If fans and the public get behind this first novella, then the rest of the series will also be written, and there could potentially be 12 ‘new episodes’ of The Goodies, that had comedic input from all three of the Super Chaps Three.

QUOTES

GRAEME GARDEN: “We had great fun working on ideas for an audio series with the ever inventive and energetic Barnaby Eaton Jones, and he has now turned the first of those ideas into book form. If you don’t like fun, satire, weirdness, wordplay and downright silliness then this is not the book for you.”

BILL ODDIE: “I have heard of a "novella", but what exactly is it? A cheap Italian wine? A kind of pizza? A short irritating opera? Or an extremely entertaining little book (featuring The Goodies) written by Barnaby Eaton-Jones? You're right, it is a pizza. (P.S. Novella also plays centre forward for Juventus).”

CHRISTINE BROOKE-TAYLOR: “Tim would have been really chuffed that The Goodies are reappearing in another form, from ideas he worked on with Graeme, Bill, and Barnaby. It's also lovely to know that a portion of the sales are going towards the Thames Valley Adventure Playground charity, which he was an active President of for over 25 years.”

BARNABY EATON-JONES: “For Graeme, Bill, and Christine to approve of the idea of this being my way of a tribute to Tim was on the way hand, humbling, on the other hand, exciting, and on the third hand (yes, I’ve got three hands) nerve-wracking.
For fans, it gives them new, original adventures of the Super Chaps Three (which they initially were going to be called before The Goodies!), in the same style as the classic television series.
I must dish out thanks to Gareth Gwynn and John-Luke Roberts, who allowed their ideas they contributed to the initial plots of the proposed audio series to be used, as well as Daniel McGachey (for his artwork and design), Kenton Hall (for his invaluable editing and support) and Graeme Garden (for overseeing the entire project); all of whom also provided additional material to beef the joke quota up to maximum capacity. But I’m claiming all the good jokes are my own, obviously. Ahem.”