Funny-sad author | Copy and content
The untold story of the Crawley Writers' Group
By Dan Brotzel, Martin Jenkins and Alex Woolf
(Formerly Kitten on a Fatberg)
Order now from Amazon or Waterstones
(NB As of summer 2024 Work in Progress has been discontinued by Unbound, but copies remain available on all the usual sites. If you have any problems ordering or if you're a publisher interested in issuing a new edition of the book, do please contact me.)
They've all got a book in them, unfortunately.
In December 2016, Julia Greengage, aspiring writer and resting actor, puts up a poster in her local library inviting people to join a new writers' group. The group will exchange constructive feedback and 'generally share in the pains and pleasures of this excruciating yet exhilarating endeavour we call Literature'.
Seven people, each in their own way a bit of a work in progress, heed the call.
There’s Keith, a mercenary sci-fi geek who can write 5,000 words before breakfast and would sell his mother for a book deal. Tom, a suburban lothario with an embarrassing secret. Peter, a conceptual artist whose main goal in life is to make everyone else feel uncomfortable. Alice, who’s been working on her opening sentence for over nine months. Jon, a faded muso with a UFO complex. Blue, whose doom-laden poems include ‘Electrocuted Angel in the Headlights of My Dead Lover’s Eye Sockets’ and the notorious ‘Kitten on a Fatberg’.
Soon, under Julia's watchful eye, the budding writers are meeting every month to read out their work and indulge each other's dreams of getting published. But it’s not long before the group's idiosyncrasies and insecurities begin to appear. Feuds, rivalries and even romance are on the cards – not to mention an exploding sheep's head, a cosplay stalker, and an alien mothership invasion. They’re all on a journey, and God help the rest of us.
A novel-in-emails about seven eccentric writers, written by three quite odd ones, Work in Progress is a very British farce about loneliness, friendship and the ache of literary obscurity.
‘Excruciatingly well-observed, Work in Progress is a deeply funny epistolary novel with the kind of comic timing that caused me frequent physical pain. Consistently inventive and seamlessly collaborative: despite the characters’ best efforts I felt the constant exuberance of resourcefulness and discovery on every page. A masterpiece of passive-aggression that somehow combines skewering the most monstrous kind of mediocrity and delusion with genuine affection, humanity and wit. I couldn’t put it down and read it in one day. I never do that.’
Luke Kennard, poet and author of The Transition
‘This is so cleverly written. I’m enjoying it so much!’
‘This is such an entertaining read! Love this dysfunctional group of characters’
‘This book is a laugh a line’
Reviews from The Pigeonhole
Work in Progress - formerly Kitten on a Fatberg
By Dan Brotzel, Martin Jenkins, Alex Woolf
A farcical novel-in-emails about an eccentric writers group. They've all got a book in them, unfortunately.
'Brotzel's prose style is anarchic and
economical. His dialogue fizzes along brilliantly and he's genuinely a laugh-out-loud writer, but with some real pathos and depth to his characters too.'
CM Taylor, author of Premiership Psycho and Staying On
‘Excruciatingly well-observed, Work in Progress is a deeply funny epistolary novel with the kind of comic timing that caused me frequent physical pain. Consistently inventive and seamlessly collaborative: despite the characters’ best efforts I felt the constant exuberance of resourcefulness and discovery on every page. A masterpiece of passive-aggression that somehow combines skewering the most monstrous kind of mediocrity and delusion with genuine affection, humanity and wit. I couldn’t put it down and read it in one day. I never do that.’
Luke Kennard, poet and author of The Transition
'Thoughtful and satirical, Alan Bennett meets David Sedaris meets Jasper Fforde.'
Stuart Hannabuss, Press & Journal
