The Man in the Moon

William is a lonely young man on the loose in the late 1960s. A disastrous appearance as a stand-up comic in a pub called The Man In the Moon is only the start of his adventures, in which he consorts with theatrical types, frenzied advertising men and accident-prone lodgers.

William’s exploits lead him eventually to the consulting rooms of a Harley Street psychiatrist, where his delusions that he is a comic genius can finally be laid bare.

Andrew Barrow’s second – and so far last – novel, first published in 1996, is a hilariously bittersweet comedy that follows in the footsteps of last year’s sensational reissue of The Tap Dancer, which drew praise from Alan Bennett (‘my favourite novel’), Craig Brown (‘sublime comedy’) and India Knight (‘hilariously funny’).