Word Monkey

Clever, wise, heartbreaking and yet also life-affirmingly funny: his literary comic lightness of touch is on a par with Wodehouse. -- JOANNE HARRIS, bestselling author of Broken Light and Chocolat A delight to read - a glorious, witty and life-affirming ragbag of autobiography, cultural commentary and hard-won wisdom about the strange and miraculous craft of writing. It's the sort of book that makes you want to underline every other sentence. Beautifully written, of course - one would expect no less from Chris - and characterised by its complete lack of self-pity. I hope it sells by the truckload. -- ANDREW TAYLOR, bestselling author of The Shadows of London A delight: perceptive, wise and illuminating on the act of reading (no genre held terrors for him) and, equally, the act of writing. All of this in a book full of disarmingly sardonic gallows humour about his own impending death. An unmissable farewell from the much missed author. -- Barry Forshaw * FINANCIAL TIMES * A remarkable book by a remarkable writer: amazingly entertaining and informative and also, for obvious reasons, one of the most moving. -- SIMON MASON, author of the DI Wilkins Mysteries Not a hint of Pollyanna here, just the most hilarious, life-affirming book you’ll read this year. * SAGA magazine *