Wimbledon winner is back with some aces

Alienation in Suburbia: They Came From SW19 by Nigel Williams.

It’s great to see Nigel Williams’ very funny Wimbledon Trilogy being republished in print and ebook form.

The Wimbledon Poisoner, They Came From SW19 and East of Wimbledon were originally published in the early 1990s by Faber & Faber but are being republished by Corsair, which is a fiction imprint of Constable and Robinson.

Corsair is also publishing a new novel by Williams, called Unfaithfully Yours, which is, incredibly, his first novel for over 10 years.

Williams has a unique brand of dark suburban humour. The new book is set in Putney, a suburban neighbour of Wimbledon, and is an epistolary novel which seem to be very much in fashion at present. It has got off to good initial sales in the UK and has received several glowing reviews.

The first book in the trilogy, The Wimbledon Poisoner, features 40-year-old Henry Farr’s desperate attempts to kill his wife in a perfect murder but his plans go wrong in a series of blunders.

They Came From SW19 follows 14-year-old UFOlogist Simon Britten caught between the Extra-Terrestrial and the First Church of Christ the Spiritualist. In East of Wimbledon, Robert Wilson claims to be a Muslim to get a job at the Wimbledon Independent Islamic Boys’ Day School.

Unfaithfully Yours sees Elizabeth Price employing a private detective to investigate her husband’s suspected affair but setting off a chain of correspondence that reunites four formerly close-knit couples. The books all have great covers by artist Tom Gauld.

If you enjoy funny, inventive and engaging writing, then I recommend The Wimbledon Trilogy and I’m looking forward to re-reading them and reading the new novel.