The Unfinished Harauld Hughes

De: Richard Ayoade

Narrado por: Chris Morris, David Mitchell, Lydia Fox, Noel Fielding, Richard Ayoade, Sally Hawkins, Stephen Merchant

The gifted filmmaker, corduroy activist and amateur dentist, Richard Ayoade, first chanced upon a copy of The Two-Hander Trilogy by Harauld Hughes in a second-hand bookshop. At first startled by his uncanny resemblance to the author's photo, he opened the volume and was electrified. Terse, aggressive, and elliptical, what was true of Ayoade was also true of Hughes's writing, which encompassed stage, screen, and some of the shortest poems ever published.

Ayoade embarked on a documentary, The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, to understand the unfathomable collapse of Hughes's final film O Bedlam! O Bedlam!, taking us deep inside the most furious British writer since the Boer War.

This is the story of the story of that quest.

Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

©2024 Richard Ayoade (P)2024 Faber & Faber

Quintessential Ayoade

I love Richard Ayoade, and if you do as well you will very likely love The Unfinished Harauld Hughes. It takes his familiar comic sensibility: dry, absurd, overly precise, and suspicious of straightforward sincerity, and applies it to the form of a fictional documentary. This turns out to be an oddly perfect medium for him: part biography, part investigation, part elaborate excuse to misunderstand things with great confidence. Strange, funny, distinctive, and exactly the sort of book that makes you feel both entertained and mildly underqualified to be entertained.

Controlled Whimsicality: The Genius of Richard Ayoade

I sauntered into this auditory tussock and came out the other end like a reborn foal, moist with the fluids of creation.

Ayoade at his most clever

Maybe you have to understand British humour to appreciate this slim volume. It is a gem. After you’ve listened, you want to listen again for every word you missed first time around.

The Realest Unreal Biography - WOW

Absolutely incredible that this novel is pure fiction. Remarkable, enjoyable, very well narrated. Deeply enjoyed, highly recommend for anyone who enjoys contemporary British comedy and art history.

Phenomenal

If you love Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace & This is Spinal Tap you’ll love this delightfully dry mockumentary diving into the work of fictional auteur Harauld Hughes.