Ben Elton Books In Order

Stark

Stark has more money than God and the social conscience of a dog on a croquet lawn. What’s more, they know the Earth is dying, so deep in Western Australia a planet sized plot takes shape. Unfortunately all that stands in the way of the conspiracy are four inept green freaks.

Gridlock

Gridlock is when a city dies. Killed in the name of freedom and in the name of oil and steel. Choked on carbon monoxide and strangled with a pair of fluffy dice. But how did the world come to this and how did the freedom machine end up paralyzing everyone?

This Other Eden

Small, well appointed future. Semi detached. If the end of the world is nigh, then surely it’s only sensible to make alternative arrangements. Certainly the Earth has its good points, but what most people need is something smaller and more manageable. Of course there are those who say that s planetary treason, but who cares what the weirdos and terrorists think? Not Nathan. All he cares is that his movie gets made and that s there s somebody left to see it. In marketing terms the end of the world will be very big. Anyone trying to save it should remember that. From the Paperback edition.

Popcorn

Bruce Delamitri makes movies about killers. Great movies, stylish movies. Bruce’s movies are hip. Post modern cinematic milestones, dripping with ironic juxtaposition. His killers are style icons. They walk cool; they talk cool. Getting shot by one of them would be a fashion statement. Enter Wayne and Scout. Real killers. Appalling, demented maniacs who kill people they do not know. Popcorn is an international success, prevailing at number one for five weeks on London’s Sunday Times bestseller list. This taut and darkly funny novel also poses a serious question: In a society addicted to murder, is there anything such as a responsible person?

Blast from the Past

Ready to follow Nick Hornsby and Helen Fielding as the next big thing from Cool Britannia to hit America is Ben Elton. Already known to a wide public television audience as the funnyman behind Blackadder, The Young Ones, and The Thin Blue Line, Elton, author of Popcorn, lights up the literary sky with Blast from the Past. Part noir thriller, part hilarious send up of the politics of extremism, Blast from the Past is the new novel from English comedy phenomenon stand up, playwright, television writer, and author Ben Elton a name soon to be known in all circles once Joel Schumacher’s film of his book Popcorn reaches the silver screen. In the early 80s, when Polly was a seventeen year old ideological peace protestor and Jack was a U.S. Army captain stationed at England’s Greenham Common, the two had a secret and very unlikely affair. No two people could have had more to argue about, save that they couldn’t live without each other, yet one day Jack came to the conclusion that he loved soldiering more than Polly and sacrificed their love to be a career army man. Now, sixteen years later, Polly is a lonely thirty something social services employee and Jack is a four star general who has returned to Britain to find her, his only true love. With only one night to resolve their differences, and a knife wielding stalker lurking in the shadows, for everyone concerned this will be a night like no other. From the Hardcover edition.

Inconceivable

The international bestseller that inspired the movie Maybe Baby.

Birds do it. Bees do it. Why can’t Sam and Lucy?

When Lucy first suggested they make a baby, Sam was gung ho after all, sleeping with his wife is one of Sam’s favorite things to do. Then out came the thermometers, followed by the holistic home remedies not to mention some humiliating bouts with specimen jars. Soon Lucy’s demands are driving Sam out of his mind. That is, until Sam conceives a plan of his own: He’ll write a screenplay based on his and Lucy’s poignant and often uproarious efforts to conceive a child. It could be a big hit. It might even make Sam’s career. Or cost him his marriage…

From the award winning author of Popcorn and Blast from the Past comes this hilarious and heartbreaking new novel a provocative two sided look at one couple’s Inconceivable dilemma. From sperm that swim backward to aromatherapy run amok, procreation for Lucy and Sam has turned into a grisly little war. But if Lucy feels barren as the Sahara, and Sam thinks his gay friends will be fathers before he is, they’re about to have yet another problem on their hands: saving the love that once was everything they had…
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From the Trade Paperback edition.

Dead Famous

One house, ten contestants, thirty cameras, and forty microphones. Everybody knows the rules total strangers are forced to live together while the rest of the country watches them do it. However, on day 27, one of the housemates is killed on live TV. Who is the murderer? How did they manage to kill under the constant gaze of the television cameras? Why did they do it? And who will be next?

High Society

The war on drugs has been lost, but afraid to face that fact, the whole world is rapidly becoming one vast criminal network. From the Groucho Club toilets to the poppy fields of Afghanistan, we are all partners in crime, and this story takes us through the landscape it has created.

Past Mortem

In romantic desperation, mild mannered detective Edward Newson logged on to the ‘Friends Reunited’ website searching for the girlfriends of his youth. As his old class begins to reassemble in cyberspace, the years slip away and old feuds and passions burn hot once more. A school reunion is planned, and as history begins to repeat itself, the past crashes headlong into the present. Past Mortem is both a heart stopping thriller and a killer comic romance.

The First Casualty

In Flanders in June 1917, a British officer and celebrated poet is shot dead, killed not by German fire, but while recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, charged with his murder. Douglas Konig, formerly a detective with the London police, soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him.

Chart Throb

Chart Throb: the ultimate pop quest. Ninety five thousand hopefuls. Three judges. Just one winner. And that’s Calvin Simms, the genius behind the show. Calvin always wins because Calvin writes the rules. But this year, as he sits smugly in judgment upon the mingers, clingers, and blingers whom he has preselected in his carefully scripted ‘search’ for a star, he has no idea that the rules are changing. The ‘real’ is about to be put back into ‘reality’ television, and Calvin and his fellow judges the nation s favorite mom and the other guy are about to become ‘ex factors’ themselves. Ben Elton returns to blistering comic satire with a vengeance in this no holds barred competition. One winner. A whole bunch of losers. Crazed, no talent, fame junkies…
and that s just the judges.

Blind Faith

A dark, savagely comic novel from the bestselling author of Chart Throb. As Trafford Sewell struggles to work through the usual crowds of commuters, he is confronted by the intimidating figure of his Parish Confessor. Why has Trafford not been streaming his every moment of sexual intimacy onto the community website like everybody else? Does he think he’s different or special in some way? Better than his fellow man and woman? Does he have something to hide? Imagine a world where everyone knows everything about everybody. Where what a person feels and truly believes is protected under the law, while what is rational, even provable is condemned as heresy. A world where to question ignorance and intolerance is to commit a Crime against Faith. Ben Elton’s dark, savagely comic novel imagines a post apocalyptic society where religious intolerance combines with a confessional sex obsessed, self centric culture to create a world where nakedness is modesty, ignorance is wisdom and privacy is a dangerous perversion. A chilling vision of what s to come? Or something rather closer to what we call reality?

Bachelor Boys: The Young Ones Book

Bachelor Boys: The Young Ones Book by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer 1984 Softcover 8 x 9 inches Sphere Books Ltd. London RICK, VYVYAN, MIKE and NEIL

Gasping

Little Theatre Comedy Ben EltonCharacters: 3 male, 3 female Interior Set The first play written by the popular author of Popcorn , Gasping is a brilliantly funny satire on big business, the media and product exploitation. Lockheart Industries is making serious money, but Sir Chiffley Lockheart needs the buzz that finding a way to make money where none has existed before gives him. Philip, a pushy workaholic executive, suggests selling designer air. Perrier for the nostrils becomes the marketing phenomenon of the decade and millions are quickly made. People start ho*arding for a rainy day and oxygen supplies run low. The Third World is plundered, creating a greater divide between the haves and have nots. The world starts Gasping and only the biggest suckers survive. ‘A poisonously funny morality play…
. A remarkable debut.’ London Sunday Times. ‘A sharp witted satire…
. Extremely funny.’ Independent.

Silly Cow

Doris Wallace, bit*chy queen of the tabloid press, is on the verge of a glorious venture in TV. She’s not going to let anything get in her way, not even the ‘Silly Cow‘ suing her for libel. Any skeletons she may have in her cupboard are, like her bondage gear, firmly locked up or so she thinks.

Ben Elton Plays 1

Ben Elton’s plays in one volume for the first timeGasping: ‘…
an often hilarious satire on yuppiedom, advertising and corporate greed’ Daily Telegraph; ‘…
the sharpest futuristic comedy since Henceforward, and the best Green comedy since The Good Life was young.’Financial Times. Silly Cow: ‘It has an ingenious plot…
another perfect occasion for a Ben Elton satire on the modern world…
‘ Financial Times. Popcorn: ‘An enjoyable, intelligent, thought provoking play’ Independent; ‘It thrills on stage precisely because it adopts the sick humour, sickening violence and downright sexiness of the Stone Tarantino school of film making that Elton is satirising’ Evening Standard.