It will be published a the end of March, and will be available by mail order from April.
Portrait of the Dog as a Young Artist
This book was written for the weird and wonderful Laugharne Literary Festival, which I do every year. As you probably know, Laugharne is where Dylan Thomas lived and worked and largely based Under Milk Wood on. The story was conceived as a love-letter to the festival, but despite a few in-jokes, it’s written to appeal to anyone who likes my stuff.
Martin’s illustrations are fantastic, and as you can see below, I’ve had some good feedback.
I enjoyed this hugely- very funny and inventive…a brilliant mystery tour through the back-alleys of a great comic mind.
Andy Hamilton
A surreal, fantastical and joyous love letter to Laugharne, Wales via China, Japan, Afghanistan & the V&A. It's as if Nick has written his loving and belly rattling funny genius onto walls which have never stopped echoing the works of Dylan Thomas - and I am here for this time-bent symphony of utter madness.
Carys Eleri
An utterly beguiling little volume. Brilliant, beautiful and not a little bonkers. The collaboration by the ghosts of Saki, Flann O’Brien and Eric Morecambe that the world didn’t know it needed. This is just lovely. Unapologetically erudite, unfailingly hilarious and ridiculously charming.
James O’Brien
Nick Revell was the first stand up I saw at the Comedy Store - he was sharp and funny and had wonderful hair- he still does - it looks as good as the day he bought it - he still has remarkable energy for his age - it always delights me to see him about to go on stage, bent over and receiving his energising injection from Dr Buck in his Elixir Van - that elixir is why you have this wonderful piece of work in front of you - it is like an out of body experience of extreme Bibliomania celebrated - it is not a full out of body experience as the last time Nick did that his soul refused to go back into his wretched frame until coaxed in by a cheese triangle - let us celebrate the eccentric ingenuity of the words within and let us raise a glass to Dr Buck for making it all possible.
Robin Ince
The House of the Spirit Levels
When Tony Hardstaff leaves his native Grimedale in Yorkshire, a town that 'looks like Bladerunneer painted by L S Lowry', to find fame and fortune, things don't quite work out. Pursued by the Russian mafia, he returns home to find Grimedale in danger and his childhood sweetheart, the lovely but somewhat unhinged Emily Earnshaw, yearning for her own quality fish and chip shop.
Lots, lots more happens - involving Elvis, the Virgin Mary and a morris-dancing survivalist militia, amongst others - and Tony ends up drinking himself into oblivion in a South American cocktail bar, only to find his pat comes back, quite literally, to haunt him…
Night of the Toxic Ostrich
An everyday story of revolutionary politics, genetically modified food and sexual derring-do in north London.
James ia a stand-up comedian whose politics are (he thinks) right-on but whose sex life is (he knows) right off. When part of his act offends the mujaheddin in Afghanistan - and they consequently seek revenge - he sets in motion a highly improbable but hugely entertaining chain of events that climaxes violently around an Islington kitchen table.
Possibly the first novel in literary history featuring an over-sexed radioactive flightless bird.