'The Fun Factory' is set in the golden decade before the Great War, when the music halls were the people's entertainment, before radio, television or cinema and bigger than all of them. The biggest draw of the day was entrepreneur Fred Karno, whose colossal comedy companies toured the country bringing laughter, slapstick, excitement and, above all, spectacle to the music hall stage. Arthur Dandoe is a young comedian trying to make his way up the hierarchy of the Fred Karno company. Along the way he develops a bitter professional and romantic rivalry with another ruthlessly ambitious performer, a young man destined to become the most celebrated on the planet ? Charlie Chaplin. Full of marvellous period detail and terrific characters, 'The Fun Factory' is an original and affecting historical comedy about the history of comedy. AUTHOR: Chris England is a comedy writer, who until now has specialised in writing comedy about sport. His previous writing includes the stage plays (and subsequent films) 'An Evening With Gary Lineker' and 'Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson', and the books 'Balham to Bollywood' (a Radio 4 Book of the Week) and 'No More Buddha, Only Football' (about the 2002 World Cup). In addition, he writes the radio shows 7 Day Sunday and 7 Day Saturday for BBC Radio FiveLive, and contributed to the best-selling Pub Landlord books 'The Book of British Common Sense' and 'Think Yourself British' with Al Murray, 'The Pub Landlord'. 'The Fun Factory' is his first novel. SELLING POINTS: ? Brilliant novel set in the last days of music hall, just before the movies took over ? A popular historical period, vividly evoked ? A romantic story with a somewhat nostalgic appeal (in these days of Sky TV and special effects) ? Shines a new light on Charlie Chaplin ? Lots of interest in Chaplin following the recent discovery of his long-lost novel ? The author is a comedian and playwright with a first-hand, professional understanding of the way theatre works ? Strong media potential ? and the author is a BBC pundit and comedian
