Keith Hann has been writing a Big Novel for as long as anyone can remember, including him. His half million word blockbuster Summer Fields was completed in 1987, providing a unique perspective on the City of London at the advent of Thatcherism and the demise of traditional, gentlemanly stockbroking and public relations. This was combined with periodic excursions into deeply eccentric circles in Northumberland, and growing evidence of the author’s mental instability. It has been partially read by several literary agents, who shared only an air of disbelief.

Since Keith is noted for having the exact opposite of a vivid imagination, subsequent efforts have all been on uncannily similar lines, and have attracted similar reactions from the publishing industry. However, by an amazing stroke of good fortune Keith was asked in 2012 if he might like to update The Bluffer’s Guide to Opera, thereby finally providing him with a justification for having hoarded the programmes from all the 1,000 or so operas he had attended over the previous 40 years. These were instantly transformed from weighty evidence of a major psychological problem into valuable research material.

The resulting melange of misinformation and old jokes finally hit the nation’s bookshops in August 2013, albeit with considerably less impact than they had already felt from Amazon. Where this work may also be purchased by following this link. An expanded and updated version was published by Haynes in 2018 and may be purchased here.

Evidently learning nothing from experience, in 2019 Haynes commissioned Keith to write The Bluffer’s Guide to Public Relations, which may be purchased here.

As for the Big Novel: well, hope springs eternal but …