The highly acclaimed, literary debut novel from renowned comedian and presenter Alexei Sayle
Kelvin is a 33-year-old property developer living in a small Lancashire town.
He has five close friends, all in well-paid jobs. Having bought their lovely houses cheaply in the early 1990s, they are free to spend money on their own pleasures - particularly clothes, meals and cars. Most of all, their life revolves around going to see things - art exhibitions, comedians, live music, plays...
When we first meet the six friends they are on their way to see a new kind of circus. Once there Kelvin does something unforgivable to a clown, has a strange snack and meets the most beautiful girl he has ever seen.
It's the beginning of the end of the good life.
The purpose of this book is to entertain and it does exactly that. By the last paragraph, I was wondering exactly how long I'd have to wait for Alexei Sayle's new novel. - Gary Morecambe, Daily Mirror
Compelling and believable characters...pacy and brusque - Spectator
Darkly humourous...[an] eccentric, bleak and wonderfully self-assured novel. - Daily Telegraph
Like a psychopathic ringmaster in a circus, Sayle ushers in his cast of characters...He makes them perform their surreal little dance, about vengeance, and guilt, and the casual brutality of life, and then, with a shrug, he feeds them to the lions. - Independent
Alexei Sayle is a comedian, actor, presenter and writer. His television work as a writer and performer includes The Young Ones, Alexei Sayle's Stuff, and The All New Alexei Sayle Show and Alexei Sayle's Liverpool for BBC 2. He has written for many newspapers and magazines and appeared in numerous films, from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to Gorky Park. He is currently writing his memoir, STALIN ATE MY HOMEWORK, which will be published by Sceptre in 2010.