The Last Ealing Comedy

Strange goings on in Ealing-more 'fast, funny and funky' comedy from the author of Stranger Than FulhamThe Last Ealing Comedy is a triumph' Daily Express

Matthew Baylis was born in Nottingham in 1971 and educated in Liverpool and Cambridge. After working as a literary agent, he went on to write storylines for BBC 1's 'EastEnders', and then to help the United Nations and British Council create the first pan-East African soap opera (scheduled for transmission in July 2002).  He has written for a number of newspapers, including the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Independent on Sunday and Evening Standard.  He also reviews fiction for the website Amazon.co.uk.  His first novel, Stranger Than Fulham, was published in 1999.

Alastair Strange is having trouble.  His girlfriend Martha, tired of late night telly and takeaway pizzas, has reinvented herself as the real estate princess of Putney. His dream job has turned into a nightmare and his Dad's been arrested for burglary.  Just when things couldn't get worse, along comes Alastair's old friend, society It-girl Tara, with a tantalising job offer. Alastair finds himself teaching media studies in an Ealing school.  A cushy number, he thinks, but that's before Tara calls the favour in- The derelict Ealing Studios are next to the school - their presence haunts Alastair and acts as a continual motif for his story, combining the quirky wit and eccentricity of the Ealing films with an eye for the absurdities of modern urban life.  Flat-sharing with the impossible Davenport, dealing with mysterious girls on the bus and disastrous blind dates, it would seem that there is, perhaps, one last comedy left in Ealing.

Matthew Baylis

M Baylis

A hotbed of lust and intrigue... Byalis has created a world which intertwines sparky characters from all walks of life. Engrossing and fast-paced

A narrative voice that is original enough to get noticed and is pickled in black humour

An excellently written and consistently funny book whose harsh, archly written observations on the absurdities of urban living make great reading

In an attempt to escape his bizarre family and stagnation up North, tv soap-addict Alistair Strange moves to Fulham where he lands a job editing for a vanity publisher. It is an odd kind of job, but he is used to oddness: his parents are strange, his elder brother is strange his name is strange... The behaviour of his lovely but troubled flat-mate Martha, however, is odder than anything that Alistair has encountered before. Can he rescue Martha? Can he find out what his family is hiding? And is life better than tv?

Matthew Baylis

Praise for Stranger Than Fulham

A work rich in humour and insight

A hotbed of lust and intrigue... Byalis has created a world which intertwines sparky characters from all walks of life. Engrossing and fast-paced

A narrative voice that is original enough to get noticed and is pickled in black humour

A work rich in humour and insight

A hotbed of lust and intrigue... Byalis has created a world which intertwines sparky characters from all walks of life. Engrossing and fast-paced

A narrative voice that is original enough to get noticed and is pickled in black humour

A work rich in humour and insight

A hotbed of lust and intrigue... Byalis has created a world which intertwines sparky characters from all walks of life. Engrossing and fast-paced

A narrative voice that is original enough to get noticed and is pickled in black humour

Books by Matthew Baylis

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