BE FUNNY OR DIE - The book is here!

I've just opened a big box of books.

The post office has been in the firing line recently, with good cause, but let’s separate Post Office Ltd (formerly Post Office Counters) from the Royal Mail, who’ve just delivered a big box of my new book Be Funny Or Die in a manner that would not upset Toby Jones in the slightest.

It’s a magical moment seeing the book in its actual physical form, when for years and years it’s been nothing more than. a digital file, no more substantial than an email. It’s incredible flicking through it to see that, yes, it is a book, not a prop or a packshot or a mockup, and all the words you wrote are actually in it. I’ve been excitedly checking random pages and thrilling that, good, the footnote about Mrs Mangel is in there. Stuff like that.

This hour or so of fizzy overexcitement is the authorial equivalent of running round a bigger-than-expected hotel room with your arms out, being an aeroplane, like everybody does even if we don’t always admit it. (Alan Whicker did, I bet you, and so do Princess Anne and Tyler The Creator.)

I’m doing that for a bit. But for a new book. Whee.

Thanks to everyone who supported the project - your names are in there, I’ve checked - and huge thanks to the lovely people who liked the book enough to enable us to put these ridiculously nice quotes on the back.

I particularly like that the tomato splat on the back makes it look like I’ve done. a murder using the book. It’s fairly heavy. You could probably dispatch a nemesis with it, if required.

If you want me to come to a literary festival and talk about the book, I’d love to. It’s a great subject to talk about - and the book itself grew out of some talks I did about the subject, so it’s a natural fit. Just drop me a line on any of the usual social media places, or leave a message on this post, and I’ll let the gang at Unbound know.

It would be fantastic to take this book out there this year, and stage what I hope will be a Grand Defence of Comedy as a thing.

Comedy is a beautiful art form and I reckon it needs some love right now, just as much as we all need more comedy in our lives.

BE FUNNY OR DIE is out on March 7th, in all sorts of shops, and can be ordered online from all sorts of other shops.

I hope you like it. I loved making it.

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