Disaster Dates and Lucky Escapes by Tess Smith-Roberts

Waterstones Best Humour Books of 2023

Meet serial dater Olive. She's just a regular gal looking for love, but navigating the wild world of modern
dating is getting her no closer to finding the one - why are there so many weirdos out there?!

Follow Olive on her quest for companionship, as she goes on dates that go from bad to worse to even more disastrous, including a man who disappears after going to the toilet in a restaurant and is later spotted on shift waiting tables; a woman who vomits all over her on the beach; and a professional triangle player who gets into a fist fight and jumps out of not one but two moving cabs.

Will Olive ever find the one? And will they be everything she's looking for?

Following up on the popularity of her viral dating comics series on Instagram, Disaster Dates and Lucky Escapes is crammed full of outrageous dating comics illustrated in artist Tess Smith-Roberts's colourful and fun signature style so loved by her 193k Instagram followers. The sometimes gross, often relatable but always laugh-out-loud hilarious stories are weaved into a narrative, with some dates submitted by Tess's Instagram followers, some inspired by previous submissions and, of course, some fan favourites from her popular dating comics series on Instagram.

Tess is a freelance illustrator based in South East London, originally from Norwich, who studied illustration at Kingston School of Art. She approaches her work with humour, bold shapes, and a playful use of colour. Her varied clients include Comic Relief, TK Maxx, Apple, Bon Appetit, New York Times, The New Yorker, Chilly's, Vogue, Medium, Soho House to name but a few. She was inspired to create her popular series of dating comics after a string of bad dates, which by doing so and getting her followers to send in their own, provided a form of cathartic therapy.
@tesssmithroberts
tesssmithroberts.co.uk