To Be Continued (Shortlisted For The Wodehouse Comic Fiction

Description: SHORTLISTED FOR THE WODEHOUSE COMIC FICTION PRIZE 2017 An utterly mad, entirely heart-warming Highland adventure from the Man Booker-longlisted author of And the Land lay Still Douglas is fifty years old - he's just lost his job, been kicked out by his girlfriend and moved back into his dad's house. Just when things are starting to look hopeless, he makes a very unexpected new friend: a talking toad. Mungo is a wise-cracking, straight-talking, no-nonsense kind of toad - and he is determined to get Douglas's life back on track. Together, man and beast undertake a madcap quest to the distant Highlands, hot on the trail of a hundred-year-old granny, a beautiful Greek nymph, a split-personality alcoholic/teetotaller, a reluctant whisky-smuggler, and the elusive glimmer of redemption . . .

Review: A real romp of a road novel featuring a talking toad. I can't wait * Val McDermid, The Observer * Publisher's description. A madcap Highland adventure about midlife crises, new friends, and second chances. Douglas Findhorn Elder is fifty years old, recently dumped and suddenly jobless. Mungo Forth Mungo is a talking toad. And as luck would have it, this toad is determined to help his hapless human chum to sort his life out... * Penguin * Joyful, warm-hearted, funny ... but buried within are serious points about the stories we tell about ourselves, how history shapes our identity, scarred landscapes and self-selecting communities. In heartsore times we need more books like this. * Guardian * Funny and fun ... To Be Continued manages to be sad and happy at the same time. You can engage with the post-modern games and references if you like, or you can just sit back and laugh, and cry. A Scottish baroque novel, full of tricks and trinkets, written with warmth and wit. * The National * Robertson manages to skilfully join the quirky with the serious; the surreal with the real. His take on contemporary Scotland is insightful, eccentric and highly readable. * The Scotsman * To Be Continued, with its harem-scarem scenarios and surreal twists, was written to entertain. * Sunday Herald * A wildly eccentric tale laced with dry, deprecating wit * The Times *



Prizes: Short-listed for Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2017.

Author Biography: James Robertson is the author of The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, The Testament of Gideon Mack, And the Land Lay Still, and The Professor of Truth. Hamish Hamilton published his most recent novel, To Be Continued. Joseph Knight won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year, The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, and And the Land Lay Still won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year. Robertson is also the author of four short story collections, most recently 365: Stories, five poetry collections and numerous children's books written in English and Scots. He runs the independent publishing house Kettillonia, and he is co-founder and general editor of the Scots language imprint Itchy Coo, which produces books in Scots for children and young adults.