The Legend of Liz and Joe (2009)
It is 2008 and Joe Gladstone’s North Cumbrian gourmet guesthouse is losing a packet, not least because of the unusual requirements he makes of his would-be guests. Meanwhile his wife Liz has embarked on her first extramarital affair at the age of seventy, and has started having spiritual visions. John Murray’s latest comic extravaganza also features a wild dialect epic, set in 2018, about political tyranny and the tyranny of fashion, as well as some diverting table talk about the ethics of eating and drinking.
‘an extremely funny and wickedly clever book’ – The Independent
Listen to John Murray reading from The Legend of Liz and Joe
A Gentleman’s Relish (2006)
George Geraghty, the notorious satirical cartoonist, ought to be enjoying his retirement to the wilds of North Cumbria. Instead he can’t shake off the legacy of his long-dead father Bill, who spoke fifty-five languages and had at least fifty-five mistresses. John Murray’s wild extravaganza characteristically concerns itself with erotic love, linguistics, familial rivalry, and other contentious matters . . .
‘A Flann O’Brienesque romp… beautifully written and laugh-out-loud funny’ – Independent on Sunday
Murphy’s Favourite Channels (2004)
Looking back, the eponymous Roe Murphy finds that his life has, more often than not, bizarrely imitated his favourite television programmes. Can reality be mimicking the mass media? Or is television creating reality? What is the relationship between images on the screen and the so-called real world?
‘An exquisite dryly comic tone. The funniest novel I’ve read for a long time.’ – Novel of the Week, Daily Telegraph
Buy Murphy’s Favourite Channels
Jazz Etc. (2003)
Meet Vince Mori, an Italian Cumbrian, and a very passionate man. Vince is obsessed with women, the clarinet, and his trad jazz band, the Chompin Stompers. His romantic son Enzo is obsessed with only one woman, his brilliant Oxford contemporary, the world-famous guitarist, Fanny Golightly. Unfortunately, single-minded Fanny only has eyes for a Portuguese musical legend caled Toto Cebola. John Murray’s revelatory new novel is the ideal read for all those interested in the cosmopolitan music scene and the Eternal Triangle.
Radio Activity (1993, reissued 2004)
A novel about both the dangers posed by the nuclear industry (especially Sellafield in Cumbria) and radio as a means of communication. But, as is to be expected from the literary heir of Flann O’Brien, John Murray’s treatment is far from conventionally realistic, incorporating wild fantasy, uproarious satire and very funny linguistic inventiveness. With the aid of a special, indeed magical valve radio, it is possible to travel the globe, especially between Sellafield and Morocco. Meanwhile in Cumbria itself, the annual Biggest Liar in the World Competition is being held at Santon Bridge, close to Sellafield. Tall tales abound, but since this is 1986, the year of Chernobyl, Murray’s own tall tale turns out to be much truer to life than any documentary.
‘Enormously accomplished and ambitious. The very model of a political novel. It is also without doubt the only novel published this year which has had me, at times, helpless with laughter’ – Jonathan Coe, The Guardian
Also published but currently out of print:
John Dory (2001)
Pleasure (1987, reissued 1996)
Kin (1986)
Samarkand (1985)