hyacinth pink

One of my favorite things is to have a customer tell me about their favorite book from childhood; a book that usually is out of print and impossible to find, worldwide, webwide, librarywide and so on and so forth.
Today I learned about a little girl who goes by the name of Hyacinth Pink, we are in London, 1947, right after the war, her wicked step-mother sends her to buy bloater fish and tells her not to wander, not to play, not to dream ( I am quoting the lady's description pulled out of at least a three decades memory), but of course Hyacinth goes to the cinema ( Pinocchio teaches!) and when her step-mother enters the theatre in an outrage, she jumps into the movie and finds herself living it....and the story goes on...now I want to read it but I cannot because this little gem is a rarity not to be found and I am left to wander and play and dream...maybe I will jump into a movie myself.

Hyacinth Pink
by Stella Mary Pearce
illustrator, James Fitton

Under a summer sky of shooting stars at night and on a hot sandy beach during the day, the summer read of August 2012 is Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett Good Omens, the nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter,witch.
I am 12 years late(published in 1990).
I try not to laugh out loud but it takes an awful lot of self restraint, just like when I watch a Monthy Pyton show.
I have no idea how authors sit down and write a book together and it is even harder to imagine that it was possible for these two to accomplish such a task without loosing themselves night after night in each other's company and that of a good bottle of some strong spirit (Terry Pratchett's little bio on the back of the book quotes:Pratchett lives in England,he has drunk enough banana daiquiri,thank you.It's G&Ts from now on).
The ideal scenario to read the book is exactly where I am on: a beach towel, holding a gin of any kind, possibly on a deserted island where you can laugh out loud.
What is your summer read?