Man-Eating Typewriter

Single-handedly proving the novel isn’t dead, Milward breathes new life into the form in this erudite, witty yet immaculately crafted, romp of a book – Ali Millar, author of THE LAST DAYSMan-Eating Typewriter is truly extraordinary: as if Mervyn Peake and Kenneth Williams wrote a book with William Burroughs – Michael Bracewell, author of UNFINISHED BUSINESSRemarkable, beautiful, magic. Like Ulysses for those who can’t cope with reading Ulysses – Paolo HewittOutrageous, audacious and shameless, Man-Eating Typewriter is a brilliantly constructed murderous lark. Like A Clockwork Orange adapted by John Waters at his most gleeful – John Higgs, author of LOVE AND LET DIEI love this book, this jaw-dropping, obsessive love-letter to the alchemy of the word – David Keenan, author of INDUSTRY OF MAGIC AND LIGHTIt doesn’t get more exciting. In literary terms, he’s right up there with the best this country has to offer – Rupert ThomsonA mind-bending performance that unspools in flavoursome Polari over much of its pages. Intricate, hilarious, as grossly excessive as the milieu it depicts, the novel often reads as if Jean Genet and Vladimir Nabokov had joined the screenwriting team of the Carry On films – Boyd Tonkin * Financial Times *Man-Eating Typewriter is a disgusting and depraved book, awash with orgies, drug abuse, bestiality (one scene gives appalling new meaning to the expression “he’s sleeping with the fishes”), casual violence, cross-dressing, castration, comically unconventional sexual assaults, and lovingly described abnormal bowel movements. I thoroughly enjoyed it * Daily Telegraph *An exhibition of literary verve as well as a probing examination of morality within a sick society, Man-Eating Typewriter is a phenomenal achievement * Literary Review *The linguistic invention borders on the dazzling, the potted social history drops its names with wit and verve, and the whole thing is both laugh-out-loud funny and authentically disgusting * Guardian *This magnificent, unhinged book is best described by one of its own characters - it’s a beautiful fucking heinous masterpiece * Joe Dunthorne *

Richard Milward was born in Middlesbrough in 1984. His cult debut Apples was published in 2007 when Richard was twenty-two years old, followed by Ten Storey Love Song in 2009 and Kimberly’s Capital Punishment in 2012. Apples was shortlisted for The South Bank Show/Times Breakthrough Award 2008, Ten Storey Love Song was chosen as one of Waterstones New Voices 2009, and Kimberly’s Capital Punishment was picked as Time Out Book of the Week in 2012. Both Apples and Ten Storey Love Song were adapted for the stage, winning awards at the Edinburgh Fringe.