Listen online: Mister Roberts - Alexei Sayle
THE CHANCES must be a trillion, trillion to one, bigger even. So when 13-year-old Stanley discovers alien technology on a hillside in Spain he, understandably, doesn't hesitate to try it out.
But, while it affords him an unprecendented chance to see life in his ex-pat community through another's eyes, he quickly realises he doesn't like what he sees. And just when he might have thought things couldn't get worse, they do.
Mister Roberts is the third novel from writer and performer Alexei Sayle and tells the comic tale of an unforgettable Christmas in Stanley's life told by weary ex-pat costume designer Laurence, who is as touched by the events as his young neighbour.
In this OutLoud interview Sayle discusses why he moved into writing fiction, how he ended up in The Young Ones, and why he hopes ex-pats will not take his story too seriously.
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Award-winning comic Alexei Sayle grew up in Liverpool, the only child of communist parents, an asset he believes made him 'exotic'. After school he attended art college in London and rapidly fell out of love with art.
Following his graduation he spent around six years unemployed before taking up a friend's invitation to take part in a cabaret act. It was a move that led him to London's Comedy Store in 1979, becoming its first MC, which he did at night while teaching drama by day.
At the Comedy Store he joined forces with other young performers, including Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, which resulted in The Comic Strip, and The Young Ones.
Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, Sayle continued to write and perform, gaining his own television series, including the award-winning Alexei Sayle's Stuff, and also began to branch out into film and television, including Gorky Park, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Having given up stand-up by the mid 1990s, he began writing fiction, publishing his first collection of short stories, Barcelona Plates, in 2000. His second, The Dog Catcher, followed in 2001.
Sayle's first novel, Overtaken, was published in 2003, followed by The Weeping Woman in 2006.
For more information, visit his website at www.alexeisayle.me
Mister Roberts, 12.99, is published by Sceptre, ISBN: 978-0340961551
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