Conville & Walsh
literary agency
Bullet Points
- Author: Mark Watson
- Category: Fiction
- Publisher: Chatto & Windus(UK)
- Pub date: 5 February 2004
- Length: 273 pages
About Bullet Points
‘Brilliantly hilarious and hilariously brilliant. Woody Allen and William Boyd have had a bastard love-child… his name is Mark Watson’
— Stephen Fry
‘A fledgling Nabakov for the era of Big Brother’
— INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
‘Unnervingly accomplished. Expect to hear plenty more about him’
— OBSERVER
‘Fresh and imaginative … with wonderful flashes of humour. This is a clever and unusual book’
— THE INDEPENDENT
‘A fluent performance and an extremely competent first novel’
— TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Celebrity psychiatrist Peter Kristal firmly believes that any case history, any psychological profile and ultimately any life can be explained using a simple and rigorously systematic sequence of bullet points. Narrating his memoirs through the showbiz cases which brought him his fame, Krystal outlines a philosophy in which cause and effect rule supreme over some very unpredictable subjects.
But as we learn more about our narrator’s extraordinary methods, can we be sure that we are being given the whole truth? And as he diagnoses his clients with a blind faith in cause and effect, is there the slightest suggestion that his own problems may be beyond the scope of his analytical vision? The more you read BULLET POINTS, the more you will be gripped by a morbid fascination as Kristal struggles to apply a lifetime’s certainties to a career heading for disaster.
Acclaimed comedian Mark Watson has created a novel which is as original as it is intelligent. Forging a link between Oliver Sacks and John Lanchester, this is a life told through essays – told with wit, suspense and a startling mastery of form – and which draws on influences as diverse as classical tragedy and the country-folk ballad.
About the Author
Mark Watson was born in 1980. He gained a first in English from Cambridge University, while establishing himself as one of Britain’s most exciting new stand-up comedians. Nominated for a Perrier Award in 2001, he won the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award in 2002, and was a runner-up in Channel 4’s ‘So You Think You’re Funny?’ competition. At the same time as forging a career as a performer, Mark has established himself as a serious literary voice with his debut novel, BULLET POINTS, in 2004, which attracted highly impressive reviews across the board. In 2004 his 24-hour stand-up show at the Edinburgh Festival attracted huge press attention, not least when he proposed to his girlfriend in the closing seconds. Happily, she accepted. Most recently, Mark has been nominated for two Chortle Awards (highly respected in the industry) for best breakthrough and best innovation.