The Unfinished Harauld Hughes: Richard Ayoade's Hilarious Fictional Quest to Rescue a Mythical Mid-Century Playwright from Obscurity

By Frank Conroy

Book Overview

'So funny - Nabokov meets Spinal Tap.' STEPHEN MERCHANT

'Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.' TIM KEY

'Absolutely miraculous.' JESSE EISENBERG

'A brain-swirlingly funny quest.' ROBERT POPPER

Richard Ayoade's fictional quest to rescue Harauld Hughes - the almost mythical mid-century playwright - from obscurity.

The gifted filmmaker, corduroy activist and amateur dentist, Richard Ayoade, first chanced upon a copy of The Two-Hander Trilogy by Harauld Hughes in a second-hand bookshop. At first startled by his uncanny resemblance to the author's photo, he opened the volume and was electrified. Terse, aggressive, and elliptical, what was true of Ayoade was also true of Hughes's writing, which encompassed stage, screen, and some of the shortest poems ever published.

Ayoade embarked on a documentary, The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, to understand the unfathomable collapse of Hughes's final film O Bedlam O Bedlam , taking us deep inside the mind of the most furious British writer since the Boer War.

This is the story of the story of that quest.

Readers love The Unfinished Harauld Hughes:

"Buy it, it's hilarious."

"Intelligent humour at its best."

"Terrific, funny, nuts "

"I was snorting with laughter."

"Very clever, very funny."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571339174
• ISBN13: 9780571339174
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 256 Pages

Customer Reviews

I can tell tis is an early book

The subject is so well featured in this book. The dialogue is a bit corny. I am just skipping along in my reading. I have read all of Harlan Coben's books. Facts are so true and sad. Carole Darland Keep on writing.

A great Cohen mystery and thriller.

The beginning was a little slow, but it became another great Coven book. The characters are all intriguing, and if you like a good mystery this is one.

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A Thrill a Minute

Harlan Coben continues to prove that he is one of the best thriller writers around at the moment. A page turner is a much used phrase but in this case it is really appropriate. The author's books are always so well structured and his character's well rounded. He is obviously comfortable with his style and ability and this transmits itself to the reader making the reading of his books sheer pleasure from start to finish. Coben...