Hello everyone,
I’ve got a new novel out. Tether. It’s quite exciting.
The publisher was contacted this week by the mighty Book of the Month Club about it. This is absolutely hilarious to me. It’s to their great credit that they’d consider distributing Tether for even a moment but, let’s face it, they’re not going to ship thousands of books about piss neurosis to healthy, non-perverted Americans who probably used to be Eagle Scouts. But who knows?
Wait, did I say piss neurosis? Indeed I did. Here’s what it says on the back of the book:
Nolly Dutchelm has a condition.
He can’t piss unless Beethoven is watching.
It’s really, really inconvenient.
Tether will be published in paperback on 28th February, but in the meantime there are ways for YOU, as a true believer, to get it NOW. And I encourage you to do so. It is ready to ship. I can sign it for you. Or I can get someone else — my postman, my wife, or maybe my friend’s dog — to sign it for you if you prefer.
There’s a beautiful little hardback version for £20. Strictly limited edition.
AND/OR there’s an advance paperback version for just £12 £6 while stocks last. Be sure to use coupon code TETHER6 at checkout. This is a version we printed as a test, but I’m not quite happy with the text design, so they’re redesigning it and your purchase will save these unique copies from being ground into a slurry.
If you’d like to buy BOTH versions because you’re a Krazy Kollector or because you’ll use one to tip your barman or give to a child in need of improvement, you can have the paperback for just £3. Simply add both products to your basket and use the coupon TETHERBOTH at checkout.
The book has front- and back-leaf illustrations by the magnificent Landis Blair.
Thank you everyone. A new novel is big news. Please share the links and coupon codes with anyone you think might enjoy a short novel about wee-wee.
Elsewhere…
There’s a review of my year at the New Escapologist blog.
We’re booking our first screenings of the high-quality low-budget Melt It! film. That Wolverhampton gig is sold out, but we’re hoping to bring it to other UK towns in April (most likely Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Cardiff, St. Leonards, and London) and July/August (most likely Alton, Margate, and Edinburgh). Keep an eye.
I edited Dickon Edwards’ first volume of diaries. It’s a masterpiece.
New Escapologist Issue 18 is available now as a print or digital edition.
The Occasional Papers
Here’s an index of my least-worst blog posts of 2025:
For Want of Benylin (a poem)
Drugs and Bubblegum (on my plans for indolence at the Idler blog)
Shimmering and Everything is Fluid Under the Sea and Brilliant and Funny (some posts related to my first novel, Rub-A-Dub-Dub)
Normal (overheard drivel)
The Whole Point (some reactions to the Iceman gig I helped to organise)
Aphid Todayphid (the small print)
Planet of the C*nts More Like! (on meeting sweary comedian Seymour Mace before the poor and excellent fellow was seriously injured later in the year)
So, September 11th 2001 (that time I was in the background of Stewart Lee’s DVD)
Zit (on squeezing a zit in an elevator)
Yentob (a micro-tribute to the dead impresario)
Practice vs Practise. (some pedantry. And while I’m at it, why has everyone started pronouncing “trauma” as “trow-ma”?)
Thank you everyone. The “mass-market” paperback of Tether becomes properly available on Feb 28th, but don’t wait until then like a common rockpool crab. The ordering instructions and coupon codes for the smart set are at the top of this newsletter.
Your long and winding friend,
Robert Wringham
www.wringham.co.uk
Humorist Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist magazine and the author of eight books including the Leacock-shortlisted A Loose Egg, the Saltire Award-winning Rub-A-Dub-Dub, and Melt It!, which was recently adapted for film. The late novelist Luke Rhinehart described him as “the best prose writer I know” while comedian Stewart Lee has called his works “mini-masterpieces.” He lives in Glasgow and Montreal.
