(a thriller with jokes)

Gagged

The hilarious new novel from the acclaimed author of T-Shirt and Genes.

The funny story of hapless TV executive Don Silver, who has to find a hit sitcom  fast. A nerdy comedy writer thinks he can help but his eagerness borders on the  psychotic. A young  British comic could save the day!

Richard Asplin's romp through Hollywood is comic and thrilling. I whipped one page over so fast it tore

Ben Hatch, author of The Lawnmower Celebrity

Big cast, big characters and jokes-a-plenty, it puts Asplin straight up there with Carl Hiaason and Mr Elton

Emlyn Rees, co-author of Come Together & Love Lives

Richard Asplin is the author of T-SHIRT AND GENES. He has had many and various jobs in the past including working as a bookseller. He was, until recently, the Events Organiser for Books Etc. He lives in London.

Don Silver, the Vice President of Comedy at Mercury Studios, is in very deep trouble indeed. He's been behind so many disastrous pilots that he's earned the nickname 'Buddy Holly'. If he doesn't find a hit sitcom - and fast - it'll be goodbye to the bourbon, broads and BMWs of his Beverly Hills lifestyle and he'll be out on his (freshly irrigated) arse. 
 
Award-winning comedy writer, Melvin Medford, has a plan to help Don out. So he's nerdier than Bill Gates in a Red Dwarf T-shirt at a Terry Pratchett signing; so he hasn't pitched an idea in ages; so his plan borders on the psychotic, no matter, at least he has a plan... 
 
Which is where Ben Busby comes in. A young British comic, simply gagging to break into television, he's just met two Americans who seem very keen on hiring him. Ben's beside himself with excitement. 
 
However, Melvin's beside him with a gun... 
 
In the million-dollar world of the American sitcom, you could die laughing. No joke.

Richard Asplin

A smart, stylish and highly enjoyable debut, peppered with searing observations and irreverent wit

THE AVERAGE MALE IS 98% CHIMPANZEE... THE OTHER 2% ISN'T SO SMART 
 
As far as science teacher Charlie Ellis's love-life goes, chaos is more than just a theory. Caught giving his fiancée Deborah an out-of-hours practical biology lesson (so to speak) in the staffroom one parents' night, Charlie suddenly finds himself single, unemployed and lost in a thoroughly unscientific world of blind dates, blind lust and blind panic. 
 
If only this relationship stuff wasn't so complicated, if only there was some logic to it - a scientist like Charlie might stand more of a chance. Because Charlie likes things ordered, and, well, scientific... Charlie begins to research this crazy little thing called love and comes up with some very surprising data indeed. Science has some very strict ideas about what men find sexy, what women find sexy and what this whole sexiness thing is for... 
 
But they're just theories, right? You're not supposed to put them into practice. Are you?

T-Shirt and Genes

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