[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by Chris O'Carroll

Of course, merging two books doesn't necessarily require us to seize on a pair of overlapping titles, does it?

It's certainly not a requirement, but where possible, I think it adds to the fun! In fact, devising such titles is perhaps more amusing than coming up with the synopsis. What on earth can I do with Sir Leicester Dedlock and Piglet?

[Adrian Fry]

I've sidestepped the whole title thing and plumped for combining Anthony Trollope's The Warden and Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

[Rob Stuart]

I was wondering about doing the Seven Very Hungry Caterpillars of Wisdom.

[Adrian Fry]

Brilliant, Rob! I think Lucy might have missed a trick not setting the merged titles as a comp in itself. It's the probably more the Washington Post's line of country, though.

[John Whitworth]

Right Ho, Dracula. Now what happens in this Bertie Wooster story?

[Adrian Fry]

Wide Sargasso Seabiscuit
The Unbearable Lightness of Jude the Obscure
Three Men in A Suitable Boy

[Brian Allgar]

You're right, Adrian, the titles are far more fun than actually coming up with the accompanying story. I particular like "Three Men in a Suitable Boy", and Rob's "Seven Very Hungry Caterpillars of Wisdom."

[John Whitworth]

The trouble is that any synopsis of Three Men in a Suitable Boy would be otiose.

[Brian Allgar]

Well, I've had a stab at it, but the title remains the best part.

Bleak House at Pooh Corner

Sir Leicester Dedlock buys the Hundred-Acre Wood and decides to evict the residents.

Piglet becomes a ward in Chancery, but refuses to meet his lawyer as he is afraid that a Tulkinghorn may be something like a Heffalump, only fiercer.

Eeyore is forced to go to work as a crossing-sweeper, and complains bitterly of the wear and tear on his tail.

Inspector Bucket, one of the first detectives in English fiction, is called in when one of Pooh’s jars of honey is stolen, but fails to solve the mystery.

Ironically, the solution lies in a heap of papers hoarded by the illiterate Krook, who is bounced by Tigger and dies of spontaneous combustion.

Wol has spelling lessons with a tutor called Baynham Badger, a character thought to have strayed in from another book.

At the end of the novel, we learn that Christopher Robin is Lady Dedlock’s long-lost illegitimate child.

[Adrian Fry]

Brian, don't you find that writing a synopsis rather than an extract makes this assignment especially difficult? There's something about it that simply sucks the life out of the joke.