Glasgow comedian Frankie Boyle to release second book with plans to “drift out of stand-up and write more”

Glasgow comedian Frankie Boyle has revealed he is planning to write a crime novel – part of a long term aim to “drift out of stand-up and write more novels.”

Boyle will release his second book, A Short History of the Apocalypse, produced with his regular collaborator and New World Order writer Charlie Skelton, on 7 November. The book is set in “a grotesque and bizzarro future where society has collapsed and it is everyone for themselves. Well, maybe not so bizarre then…” Readers are guided by Alonso Lamp, “a traveller in time, who has returned from the late 21st Century to impart to our cursed age his hard-earned wisdom and survival tips to give us some future perspective.” Boyle said: “It’s so unlike anything out there, I can’t imagine what people will make of it.”

The 320-page book features illustrations by comic book artist Frank Quitely, who grew up in Rutherglen before attending St Bride’s High School in East Kilbride – his work includes New X-Men and All-Star Superman. Boyle has been reading from his new book in a series of live shows at the Glee Club in Glasgow, where he has also been road-testing material for a forthcoming US Presidential Election special of the Channel 4 show The Last Leg. He has revealed that work is already underway on his first cosy crime book – the increasingly popular mystery genre, which normally focus on amateur sleuths in stories that are light-hearted in tone and have minimal violence.

Boyle has cited American science fiction writer Philip K Dick as a major inspiration for his as-yet-untitled book, which is expected to feature a novelist and screenwriter as its main protagonist.

His first novel, Meantime, a Glasgow-set thriller set in the aftermath of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, which focused on a drug addict’s investigation into the death of his best friend, was published two years ago.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2022, Boyle suggested he would happily swap performing live comedy for writing novels.

He said at the time: “I would much rather, if I could, segue into writing novels and just stay in the house and not travel so much. I would happily do that if I could.

Earlier this year, he said: “My plan now is to drift out of stand-up and write more novels. No doubt you’ll see me back onstage one day due to an ill judged investment or marriage, but I’m hoping to spend the rest of my time writing a few amusing books, possibly very slowly.”

Writing in his latest newsletter, the comic said: “I’ve been tinkering with a kind of cosy crime novel. It’s quite a laugh, and I’m enjoying it, but I’ve got some shows to do and I won’t be able to get to it in earnest till mid-November.

“I think it’ll take about a year; the lead character is a kind of novelist/screenwriter, and I want the stuff he casually mentions writing to have some spark, so it requires thinking of a lot of separate ideas.

“My model is a biography I read of Philip K Dick called I Am Alive And You Are All Dead. The mind-bending plots of his stories are mentioned very casually in a paragraph here and there, and it’s almost better if you haven’t read any.”

Boyle, who started performing at the Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh in the mid-1990s, has been a regular on TV for more than 20 years since he made his breakthrough on BBC Scotland’s Live Floor Show, going on to appear in Mock The Week and Have I Got News For You, and his own shows New World Order and Tramadol Nights. He has also hosted a number of shows on Scottish and UK politics, and the Royal Family.