Overtaken

Alexei Sayle

Though the story is told by Kelvin, a 33-year- old property developer you will find that he sounds just like Alexei Sayle, actor, anarchist, writer and stand up comedian aged 52. There is a plot involving death, the circus, cars and drugs but plot and character are secondary to the voice of Sayle. If you think his rants are funny (I do)and laugh at the extract above this is the book for you.

Extract

I made myself some cheese on toast in my father's spartan kitchen, then we watched a bit of horse racing on TV, sitting side by side in his armchairs. After a while as the horses galloped round my dad asked 'Son, anyone you fancy for the National next year?'
I replied, 'Well, they say Nicholas Hytner's production of The Cherry Orchard should be the one to watch.' We did this joke every time we watched horse racing together so that we hardly noticed we were doing it. Nevertheless I had always taken great care to update my references over the years. I seemed to remember when we started doing it it had been Richard Eyre's production of 'The Government Inspector' that I'd used.

Parallels