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When Arthur Hayman, an unsuccessful screenwriter turned children’s book author, is accidentally hit by a cement truck in London, his dying moments are spent with a passing American tourist, Laurie Clow, who is fated to bring posthumous fame to his obscure series, The Hayseed Chronicles, and the enigmatic and sinister Mr. Toppit who is at the center of the books. While Arthur doesn’t live to reap the benefits of his books’ success, his legacy falls to his widow, Martha, and their children—the fragile Rachel, and Luke, reluctantly immortalized as the fictional Luke Hayseed, hero of his father’s books. But others want their share of the Hayseed phenomenon, particularly Laurie, who has a mysterious agenda of her own that changes all of their lives as Martha, Rachel, and Luke begin to crumble under the heavy burden of their inheritance.
Spanning several decades, from the heyday of the postwar British film industry to today’s cutthroat world of show business in Los Angeles, Mr. Toppit is a riveting debut novel that captures an extraordinary family and their tragic brush with fame to wonderfully funny and painful effect.
"Skillfully written and oddly haunting…" - Kirkus Reviews
"This accomplished first novel chronicles the damaging effect of stratospheric fame on the lives of those who inherit it. Harry Potter enthusiasts will especially be drawn to it." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. While beautifully written and graced with a unique story line, it is Elton's characters who drive the novel and give it a depth uncommon in debuts." - Publishers Weekly
"However sound this insight, its execution as the novel unwinds feels like an anticlimax. Above all, the Los Angeles sections ramble on as the 18-year-old Luke summers with Laurie: too much routine drollery about showbiz flakiness. Elton thrives better amid the overcast miseries of Dorset than the sunlit hysteria of Tinseltown." - The Independent (UK)
"...Elton’s satire of the publishing world is mostly obvious and his characters familiar types (the spoilt, drug-addict daughter; the obnoxious, overweight American)... Charles Elton would clearly like this book to be a cult hit (there is a fictitious website dedicated to the 'Hayseed Chronicles'); but such things cannot be manufactured from such thin material." - The Daily Telegraph (UK)
"[The] observation is frequently too general for the satire to have real bite. On some fronts, Mr Toppit, conceived before Harry, Hermione and Albus Dumbledore were even heard of, has been overtaken by events..." - The Guardian (UK)
"This is an extraordinary debut, not only for its confident storytelling but for its nerdish familiarity with such an eclectic range of subjects: the costume melodramas of Gainsborough film studios in the early 1950s, contemporary Los Angeles, publishing contracts and even Mexican cuisine. The author details on the book jacket don't reveal whether he's working on his second novel; I hope that he is." - The Sunday Times (UK)
"Dark, hilarious and cruelly honest, Mr. Toppit exposes some uncomfortable truths about the English and American mindsets, and the effect of celebrity on private lives. A truly smashing debut novel." - Christopher Fowler, author of the Bryant & May books
This information about Mr. Toppit was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Charles Elton worked as a designer and editor in publishing before becoming a director of the Curtis Brown literary agency. Since 1991 he has worked in television and for the past ten years has been the executive producer in drama at ITV. Among his productions are the Oscar-nominated short Syrup, The Railway Children, Andrew Davies's adaptation of Northanger Abbey, and the recent series Time of Your Life.
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