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£8.99
Published
24 May 2016
B-Format PB
9781910400234
Ebook
9781908699879
Press Release
Coming soon.
 

All’s fair in love and comedy…
It’s the golden decade before the Great War, when the music halls are the people’s entertainment, before radio, television or cinema, and bigger than them all.
Young, gifted and desperate to escape a life in service, Arthur Dandoe is trying to make his way within the prestigious Fred Karno theatre company. Trouble is, the company’s ruthless number one performer – a certain
Charlie Chaplin – sees Arthur as a threat, and will stop at nothing to take him down.
Things turn nasty when Charlie and Arthur both fall for the alluring Tilly Beckett. One of the two men is fated to become the most celebrated man on the planet, with more girls than he can shake his famous stick at. The other … well, this is his story. His book.

Old Street Publishing The Fun Factory

All’s fair in love and comedy…
It’s the golden decade before the Great War, when the music halls are the people’s entertainment, before radio, television or cinema, and bigger than them all.
Young, gifted and desperate to escape a life in service, Arthur Dandoe is trying to make his way within the prestigious Fred Karno theatre company. Trouble is, the company’s ruthless number one performer – a certain
Charlie Chaplin – sees Arthur as a threat, and will stop at nothing to take him down.
Things turn nasty when Charlie and Arthur both fall for the alluring Tilly Beckett. One of the two men is fated to become the most celebrated man on the planet, with more girls than he can shake his famous stick at. The other … well, this is his story. His book.

 8.99
 
 

"Richly enjoyable… packed with intriguing details about a vanished world of entertainment… a brilliantly readable debut" —Guardian

 
 
  • "Terrific… gets right behind the scenes of music hall theatre… a very funny evocation of the early days of comedy, just before World War I." —Daily Mail
  • "A fascinating, touching and very funny evocation of a bygone era of comedy" —David Baddiel
  • "If you've ever wondered about the roots of stand-up comedy, this is the novel for you. It's an absorbing march through the early career of Chaplin and others, and evokes a fascinating time. I read it virtually straight through, stopping only for the toilet, a sleep and my customary five hundred calories a day. Oh… and there's some romance too (yuk)."
    —Jo Brand
 
 
Chris England

Chris England’s previous writing includes the stage plays (and subsequent films) An Evening With Gary Lineker and Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson, and the book Balham to Bollywood (a Radio 4 Book of the Week). In addition, he writes the radio shows 7 Day Sunday and 7 Day Saturday for BBC Radio FiveLive.
The Fun Factory is his first novel.