Small World
by Matt Beaumont

Release Date: 14th Jan 2008
Publisher: Bantam Press
ISBN: 978 0 5930 6014 8
RRP: £10.00

Far from being a novice, Beaumont is already the proud author of several books and has a penchant for writing comedic novels. My initial hesitance is as inbred as I am (joke), what with comedy writers failing with such consistency to deliver anything approaching funny... indeed, many books claiming to be comical blow out the bottom.

However, with Small World, I was pleasantly disappointed. Written in a first-person narrative, which some may find irritating, but I found refreshing and direct; we are permitted to leapfrog from mind to mind, snuggling into the dark recesses of the private thoughts, emotions and ramblings of an astonishingly normal collective. Individually, they may have perhaps been less astonishing and more normal – together they form a vast and raucous voice for the drones that make up the work horse of today’s society.

Intriguing, devilish and not a little funny – my mood swung from wildly amused, to small chortles and mild tickling. I even dared laugh out loud (which caused some staring, I can assure you). When Jaz thinks up Khali’s Kitchen as an alternative to Gordon Ramsey’s now infamous televised series of a similar name, I was beside myself.
If the author doesn’t end up having his hand bitten off to turn this into a play – there is something seriously wrong with our literary superiors. The entire book lends itself to a play, with its contemporarily twisted look at life and its hilariously comic moments and bizarre thought process that mimic real life so well.

I see a modern classic. Queues outside theatres for a sell out play. This only solidifies Beaumont’s position as one of the country’s leading comedy writers. Long may he reign!

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