FRANCIS PLUG is a troubled and often drunk misfit who causes chaos and confusion wherever he goes. And where he most likes to go is to real author events, collecting signatures from the likes of Salman Rushdie, Hilary Mantel, and Eleanor Cotton, all the while gleaning advice for a self-help book he is writing with the novice writer in mind. 

His timely manual promises to be full of sage wisdom and useful titbits to help ease freshly published novelists into the demands of life in the public eye. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in the literary world - or in fact, humanity in general. Because while it is a brilliant slapstick comedy, blurring fact, fiction, and absurdity to astonishing effect, How To Be A Public Author by Francis Plug is also a surprising and touching meditation on loneliness and finding a place in the world. Francis, it seems, just doesn’t fit in. And as you read, you may wonder if he’ll even made it to the end of his own book. 
 

PAUL EWEN is a New Zealand writer based in South London. His stories have appeared in the British Council's New Writing anthology, and also in the Guardian, Five Dials, and TES. Francis Plug: How To Be A Public Author is his first novel.