Simon Nolan

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Simon Nolan is an author living and working in Brighton. He was born in 1961 in Wallasey, Merseyside, and studied music at The University of Sussex. His novels (As Good as it Gets Quartet, 1998, The Vending Machine of Justice Quartet, 2000) are both set in Brighton, where he has lived since 1981.

The novels are satirical in tone, often parodic, and are largely interested in underclass characters; drop out students, drug dealers, rent boys and such. Often there will be an element of class conflict. Characters often appear to be 'in the wrong story', unable or unwilling to do what the narrative seems to be demanding. This is a Brighton of rootlessness, lawlessness and desperation.

[edit] As Good as it Gets

Four student drop-outs infest a Brighton flat, lives stalled, and little in the way of prospects. A bag of cocaine, 5 kg, comes into their possession by a mechanism that recalls the film Shallow Grave. After this, though, none of the expected things happen. No guns, no gangs, in fact no actual plot at all. We follow the four desperadoes as their already fragile identities are taken apart by their access to limitless supplies of free cocaine. Their behaviour spins out of control and the outcomes are fierce, brutal even, and not in any obvious sense comic, involving, inter alia, suicide attempts, gruesome sexual encounters and a species of lonely exhilaration that will be familiar to anyone who has ever had too much cocaine. Perhaps the most memorable incident here is the deliberate, intentional burning of The Satanic Verses, not by Muslim activists but by an ordinary reader who simply can't stand it.

"This is the funniest book I've read in aeons. What sets Nolan's novel apart is the acuteness of his comic observation. Nolan is brilliant..." Time Out^{[issue # needed]}

"An exceptionally funny and realistic comic novel, which is beautifully observed with the kind of dry intelligence that makes you glad there is someone out there keeping tabs on the world. Nolan's eye is perfect for observation comedy - ably jaundiced and disaffected without being embittered or misanthropic." The Sunday Times^{[issue # needed]}

"warmly funny and immensely readable" The Times^{[issue # needed]}

[edit] The Vending Machine of Justice

Elsa, a middle-class local government worker, is called to do jury service at Hove Crown Court. The case, though, has none of the elements of a courtroom drama, and in fact is so dull that the jury are barely able to attend to it. Elsa, through various shenanigans that bear little scrutiny in terms of plotting, arranges to meet the handsome young defendant, Bryn, and he offers to 'show her his life' in order to prove to her his innocence. This involves a protracted trawl through the Brighton underbelly, which is perhaps the best thing in the book. Bryn is a prostitute and, through the slightly shocked eyes of Elsa, we follow him on a day's work, and into the night. The jury room scenes are a nightmarish echo of Twelve Angry Men, but with no Henry Fonda.

"brilliant black humour... a savage take on truth and justice, with a real satirical bite that hasn't leaped out of the pages since Evelyn Waugh..." The Independent^{[issue # needed]}

"hilarious. Books this funny are a gift..." QX^{[issue # needed]}

"imagine Twelve Angry Men as a comedy set by the seaside... fantastic." Time Out^{[issue # needed]}