The Ultimate Collection of Brilliant Bedtime Stories with R.A. Spratt

Title: The Ultimate Collection of Brilliant Bedtime Stories

Author: R.A. Spratt

Genre: Short Stories

Publisher: Puffin

Published: 29^th August 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 400

Price: $22.99

Synopsis: Bedtime has never been so bonkers! The ultimate collection of short stories from the irrepressibly funny author of Friday Barnes.

From the bestselling author and host of the hugely popular Bedtime Stories with R. A. Spratt podcast comes this bumper collection of the show’s most popular stories.
Just as the Grimm brothers collected fairytales and Scheherazade told tales of the Arabian nights, now R.A. Spratt has assembled the most comprehensive collection of silly stories ever bound together in one book.
Stories so good no human mind could come up with them. They were often dictated to R.A. by the world’s most glamorous storytelling pig, Nanny Piggins. There’s a never-before-seen Friday Barnes mystery, and tall tales from R.A.’s own domestic life. You’d better brace yourself – these are tales so tall you will get altitude sickness.

Delight your friends and dazzle your family by reading aloud from this book. Or drive them into a paroxysm of jealousy as they watch you silently read this book to yourself. Either way, you must buy this book if you want joy in your heart, a tickle in your funny bone and a boggled brain as you try

~*~

R.A. Spratt’s range of stories is what I love about her. From Nanny Piggins, to her Tall Tales based on her own life, or Friday Barnes, and her latest novel, Hamlet is Not Okay, there is always something for every reader, and I have read the entire Friday Barnes books, all her short story collections, and Hamlet is Not Okay, with plans to read more Nanny Piggins, as I love the short stories I have read with her characters. In this collection, the stories are from R.A. Spratt’s Bedtime Stories podcast – another avenue of storytelling and something I do want to investigate as well. Nanny Piggins loves cake and correcting the myths and stories about history that her children, Samantha, Derrick, and Michael are taught in school – from Arthurian legends to Ancient Greek myths, and other fairy tales – tweaking what we know and giving us something new, and quite amusing. I loved these stories because I could see the roots of many of the myths, legends, historical events, or fairy tales in them through Nanny Piggins’s retellings. I do love retellings so it was interesting to see what R.A. and Nanny Piggins came up with – or rather, what Nanny Piggins came up with and narrated to R.A. so she could collect them, much like the Brothers Grimm did back in the 1870s.

The tall tales with Tammy and Mum are based on R.A. Spratt’s real life, and they’re loads of fun. They’re chaotic and funny, and that’s what makes them fun to read, because you can sense the real people behind the stories. The creativity is incredibly well used in these stories set in the real world, and I think what I like about them is that whilst what happens might not occur for everyone, it is the relationships and little moments of reality like school, dealing with siblings, and living in a family that will have people connecting to it.

Finally, there is a Friday Barnes short story, set while she was in prison, so it takes place in between books eight and nine, and she’s tasked with finding out where a fellow prisoner’s ice cream has gone. In true Friday style, she uses deductive reasoning in her case. And this gave a great insight into what happened to Friday during her time in prison, which for me, added to the joy of the Friday Barnes series because there is always something in any of those stories that readers will love and enjoy. Everything in the Friday Barnes series is linked – and astute readers of the series will know where this story sits, and for those who are meeting Friday for the first time, this is a great opportunity to go back and read the entire series!

This was another wonderful short story collection from R.A. Spratt, and I am eager to see what she has next for us.