Michael Cullen

An outrageously funny novel of adventure, sex, corruption, and crime from one of the greatest British authors of the twentieth century. Michael Cullen is proud to be a bastard. His first memories are of the war, when his mother welcomed every soldier in Britain into her house, and young Michael hid beneath her bed to let the rocking of the springs lull him to sleep. By the time he's eighteen, he's got a pregnant girlfriend, and is staring down a long life of working-class respectability that simply makes him sick. So Michael says goodbye to his girlfriend and his home in Nottingham, and hits the road for London, where he will make his fortune-or die trying. From the nightclubs of Soho to the depths of London's underworld, Michael can't help but get into trouble. But whether he's chauffeuring a vicious gangster or smuggling gold bullion across the channel, he never stops having a wonderful time. Indeed, Michael is something else entirely: a happy bastard with nothing to lose. A rollicking picaresque novel by the legendary author of such classics of kitchen sink realism as The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Start in Life is one of the funniest British novels of the twentieth century. A Start in Life is the first book in the Michael Cullen Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A laugh-out-loud adventure novel starring bestselling author Alan Sillitoe's most outrageous character: the happy bastard Michael Cullen. For most of his life, Michael Cullen was a twenty-two-carat no-good bastard, and he was quite proud of it. But after a series of outlandish criminal adventures revealed the true identity of his father, Michael made the mistake of introducing him to dear old ma. His parents wed, and Michael was a bastard no more. But he was still a rake, with a devilish sense of humor and a refreshing lack of scruples. After a disastrous escapade smuggling gold for the ruthless gangster Claude Moggerhanger, Michael resolves to go straight. But when he learns his father is writing Lord Moggerhanger's memoirs, he falls into old habits, if only for a chance to get behind the wheel of the gangster's Rolls Royce. With the open road in front of him, the police behind him, and randy waitresses at every lay-by, Michael will be a happy bastard once again. From the bestselling author of The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, Life Goes On continues the legend of one of Britain's most unlikely heroes, which began in the classic picaresque A Start in Life. Whether chasing love, money, sex, or even peace and quiet, there is nothing Michael Cullen can't make into an adventure. Life Goes On is the second book in the Michael Cullen Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Never before published, Moggerhanger is the last novel written by iconic British writer Alan Sillitoe before his death in 2010. Originally intended as the third part in a trilogy, the first two of which, A Start in Life and Life Goes On, were published in England but not in America, Moggerhanger stands on its own as the last act in an amazing writer's career, a madcap, bawdy, boisterous, and above all comic novel written in a masterly, unflinching hand, Sillitoe's Don Quixote. Michael Cullen, the narrator of Moggerhanger, is an aimless and now jobless, albeit brilliant and sophisticated, picaresque hero who always seems to end up in a pickle. Cullen finds himself in a Rolls Royce traveling across England and Europe, between visits to his father, the ever-playful and outrageous Gilbert Blaskin, a famous writer, and Blaskin's long-suffering girlfriend, Mabel; and a criminal boss, Moggerhanger, who once employed him and who now sends him on "jobs." The cast of characters is strange and wonderful-from Labrador dogs, crazed poets, and endless women, to the members of the Green Toe Gang, rat catchers, brothel workers, and investigative journalists, to his old friend and traveling companion Sergeant Bill Straw, a former mercenary soldier. A work of style as well as high comedy, Moggerhanger will make you want to quit your job and go on the road, come what may.

Here are three of Sillitoe's finest and funniest, chronicling the adventures of the "happy bastard" Michael Cullen. A Start in Life: The saga begins as Michael Cullen says goodbye to his home in Nottingham and hits the road for London. There he will make his fortune-or die trying. Life Goes On: The legend of Britain's most unlikely hero continues. After a series of outlandish criminal adventures, Cullen is a bastard no more. But he is still a rake with a refreshing lack of scruples. With the open road in front of him, the police behind him, and randy waitresses at every lay-by, Cullen is up to his old tricks once again. Moggerhanger: This madcap tale finds Cullen hired by his ex-boss, racketeer Claude Moggerhanger, to do a little "job." But that's just the beginning of a wild adventure featuring crazed poets; endless women; rat catchers; Labrador retrievers; and his old friend, former mercenary soldier Bill Straw.