A very funny, energetic, wonderfully engaging novel about where we're from and where we'd like to get to! Danny Williams is talented, upwardly mobile and has left his Northern Irish small town roots well behind him. In his mid-twenties he lives in a stylish London flat and has a job in a top London law firm. However, one innocuous Wednesday night his old mucker from home, Geordie Wilson, arrives at the door. On the run from a loyalist militia, whose operational funds he has taken, he manages to bring everything that Danny has been fleeing from right to his smart London doorstep. Taking place over an intense and gripping five-day period--set in both London and the fictional Irish town of Ballyglass--Nick Laird has written an hilarious, touching and ultimately redemptive novel about friendship.

' Utterly Monkey is an extraordinarily accomplished novel, by a confident and eloquent voice, filled with humour and insights'. Sunday Times 'Fluently written, ebulliently implausible, Nick Laird's fiction debut is an entertaining mix of thriller and comedy of misfortunes'. Independent on Sunday 'Funny, good-humoured and deftly written'. Daily Telegraph ' Utterly Monkey is the real thing; a novel rich in both achievement and promise, by a writer who can actually write'. The Times 'Exquisitely written and extremely entertaining'. Mail on Sunday 'A fine, amusing writer'. Daily Mail 'Laird has earned his place on the writers' catwalk. Expect to hear much more from this season's smash hit'. Belfast Telegraph 'Laird paces the story well, and shows his poetry roots with some arresting imagery.This is a debut with humour and a heart'. Marie Claire 'A sharp and funny debut'. Eve

Nick Laird was born in 1975 in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and until recently worked as a lawyer in London. His poems, essays and reviews have been published in various anthologies and journals including the Times Literary Supplement, and the London Review of Books. Laird's first poetry collection, 'To a Fault', is published by Faber and Faber.