The Man in the Moon

Are all aspiring stand-up comics as tragic as Baby Reindeer? If William is anything to go by, the answer is possibly 'yes'. Nostalgic, razor-sharp and deliciously peculiar, this is a weird but wonderful comedy of manners by the award-winning author of The Tap Dancer. 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').