My latest out on Amazon. 86k words of intrigue.... I must be the greatest crime writer on our street. Hull and proud.
Bob Mortimer wins Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for his ‘mischievous’ debut novel A pig will be named in honour of The Satsuma Complex, this year’s winner of the award for comic fiction Ella Creamer please log in to view this image A pig will be named after Bob Mortimer’s debut novel, The Satsuma Complex, as the comedian’s book has been announced as the winner this year’s Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction. Mortimer, who found fame as one half of Reeves and Mortimer alongside Vic Reeves, said he was “really chuffed” to have won the award. “I still have no idea if I can actually write but this award gives me fresh hope,” he added. The Satsuma Complex tells the story of legal assistant Gary Thorn, who goes for a pint with a work acquaintance, Brendan, who has to leave early. Gary then meets a girl in the pub; he falls for her, but she suddenly disappears. Gary did not catch her name, and only remembers her by the book she was reading, The Satsuma Complex. When Brendan goes missing, Gary decides to track down the girl. Mortimer “approaches the world with a sly, mischievous smile”, said judging chair and Hay festival founder Peter Florence. “I guess this is what happens when you turn a brilliant, oblique comedic attention to life. The language and the tone tip your perception all the time, and he has this strange ability to keep the reader on the very brink of guffawing for whole chapters at a time. “You get to love all these characters, the good ones and the bad ones and the very bad ones. And you’ll start talking to squirrels. And then you’ll have to think around what that’s achieving for you.” The award seeks to recognise the funniest new novels that best evoke the spirit of PG Wodehouse’s witty characters and comic timing. Along with the pig (which will continue to live at Oaklands Farm in east Sussex), Mortimer will also win a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année and the complete set of the Everyman’s Library PG Wodehouse collection. Other novels shortlisted for the award were Darling by India Knight, Didn’t Nobody Give a **** What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham, Mother Hens by Sophie McCartney, Murder at Crime Manor by Fergus Craig and Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors by Aravind Jayan. Alongside Florence on this year’s judging panel were comedians Pippa Evans and Sindhu Vee, Everyman’s Library publisher David Campbell, broadcaster James Naughtie and Hay festival vice-president Justin Albert.
Have you read it? It’s very ‘Bob Mortimer’ It’s difficult to read it without slipping into his voice in your head! I really enjoyed it
Just being watching re-runs of 'Vic Reeves Big Night Out' on Utube.....Silly, but still makes me larf after 30 years.... 'They wouldn't let it lie...'
Fair enough... Saw Jim Moir, aka Vic, on that programme tracing ancestors. 'Who Do You Think You Are? or summat like that. .......His dad/uncle/aunt or whoever used to live on a street off Prinny Avenue.
Think it was his bigamist granddad that came to Hull, to get married again without divorcing his first wife. Quite common in those days as usually only the rich had the cash to get divorced. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
They worked well together and brought out their best daftness in each other and I loved it at the time, however separately you can see Bob is genuinely funny and Vic was a persona and Jim really just wants to get on with his art etc.
Never found them funny individualaly or together. Got bobs autobiography some interesting bits about his life but still not funny.
Charles Dickens-A Life. by Claire Tomalin. Fasinating insight into the life of a remarkable and somewhat mysterious man, not to mention a great writer of his time. Charles Dickens was a phenomenon of the Victorian age. One of eight children and born into poverty and whos own father was jailed for bankrupcy, he rose to be one of the most well known men on the planet during his life. He mocked power and greed while speaking up for the ordinary people. His public readings brought huge adoring crowds where ever he went, in this country and in America where his earnings peaked at £1,000 a week during the mid 1850's. He led an extrodinary life, with a dark side, father to nine children, who all but one brought him financial heartache, as well as other family members did too. He had a healthy interest and knowledge of prositutes and 'fallen women', opening up a Home for Homeless Women in London, helped by funding from life long friend, Baroness Angela Burdett Couttes, spinster and probably the richest woman in the world at the time. Together they were also amongst the founders of Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital. Dickens visited Hull for a reading between 1868/69 and visited a shop called Dixons down Whitefriargate, before televisions were invented and bought six pair of ladies silk stockings. By this time he had rejected his wife, Catherine Hogarth, and was having a discreet affair with her much younger sister Nelly who lived with them. It was probably her who the silk stocking were for. The male shop assistant who served Dickins in Hull did not know it was him until Dickins handed him a free ticket for his public reading later that evening. An absorbing read and insight into a truly great English eccentric of a bygone age.
Dickens apparently was very fond of fish & chips and his mistress at the time loved Rowntree's chocolates, so he was planning to concoct a murder mystery highlighting these two facts. The working title of the draft of the book was " A day out in Hull and York", but his publisher coaxed him into renaming the tome "A tale of Two Cities". Or was that a FACT about one of Duffen's Briefs literary whodunnits? My memory maybe somewhat scrambled.
Hi TC My books (not sure if I have mentioned it before) all are available on Amazon in paperback and kindle. Neal Hardin titles are: Dallas After Dark A Gangland Tale The Four Fables Moscow Calling On the Edge The Wish-List A Titanic Story The Taking of Flight 98 Perilous Traffic Triple Intrigue Soho Retro A Trio of Tales Saigon Boulevard It’s Murder in London The Astrid Affair (kindle only) Not a bad body of work, even if I say it myself, though I would like to point out that I was not responsible for a 'Tale of Two Cities...' 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'...or something like that. Sounds like City down the years.
