The Satsuma Complex

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The announcement was made last night at a ceremony held at The Goring Hotel in London. Bob Mortimer receives a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année, the complete set of the Everyman’s Library P.G. Wodehouse collection, and a pig named after his winning book. Gary works as a solicitor of little talent and has a thing for drinking in the pub and eating Battenburg cake. When necessary, he also seems to be able to glean words of advice and wisdom from the local squirrels who tend to show up in times when a good talking to is required. However new title will not feature Gary –the semi-autobiographical character of a disillusioned legal assistant – who was at the centre of the first.

Gary also likes to engage in chit-chat with the squirrel he encounters in the park every day, imagining the other side of the conversation. He doesn’t have many mates, see: a couple of blokes he watches football with maybe, or the occasional exchange with the cantankerous old woman next door.The story includes many of the usual crime thriller topes – from a possible femme fatale to the calmly intimidating nemesis – but also so many sweetly surreal peculiarities that it could only have been written by Bob Mortimer. When a work acquaintance (whom Gary calls ‘sexier than a cream horn on top of a polished school bell’) suggests a pint, perhaps Gary can add to his tally. Their encounter is cut short - but after being left alone he strikes up a conversation with an out-of-his-league girl with Doc Martens and a ‘clinically straight fringe’. She’s called Emily and Gary’s instantly besotted, only for her to vanish on him too.

To describe me as anonymous would be unfair but to notice me other than in passing would be a rarity" All this suggests that novel-writing is a very promising new direction for comedy’s latest national treasure. Plot Gary, a down-at-heel London solicitor, goes for a drink with a friend. The next day, the friend goes missing. Meanwhile, Gary meets and falls for a mysterious woman. Could the two be connected? And why does Gary keep having conversations with a slightly belligerent squirrel? The debut novel by comedian Bob Mortimer has the answers. Bob Mortimer wins 2023 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with The Satsuma Complex

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In a year when laughing out loud and seeing the comical side of life seems more important than ever before, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2023 has been awarded to Bob Mortimer for his funny and clever debut novel The Satsuma Complex. Writing style Norton, it turns out, is a magnificent novelist. The story of Forever Home is a simple one, but it hinges on a big twist halfway through. A lesser writer would have hurried to get to the big moment sooner, or at least gleefully started to drop bigger and bigger breadcrumbs. But Norton is a model of restraint. He spends chapter after chapter making doubly sure you feel the way he wants you to feel about each character before dropping his bomb. 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.” Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures