Somerville Press is a book publisher based near Bantry , West Cork , Ireland. Our publishing programme incorporates both fiction and non-fiction, mainly of Irish interest. We also distribute various titles for other publishers.
Satire at its funniest …
Angelica, a pretty 9-year-old, has an ardent devotion to her father, who writes books for children. But what is a girl to do when a hostile stepmother threatens to interfere in that loving relationship? The answer leads to a nationally televised trial with unexpected consequences.
This very funny tale from the hands of a master writer of comedy features a host of bizarre but believable characters, including a teacher obsessed with sex education, overweight children given to violence, a tyrannical children’s book editor, unscrupulous television producers, self-preening lawyers, and a judge who wallows in his own pomposity.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Patrick Skene Catling was born in London and educated there at University College School and in the United States at Oberlin College. He spent many years as a journalist, covering wars, revolutions and showbiz eccentricities (see Better than Working). His book for children, The Chocolate Touch, has sold more than a million copies. He says he feels equally at home and equally alien on both sides of the Atlantic, but finally has settled most comfortably in the Republic of Ireland with Diana, his partner for the past forty years. He has four middle-aged children and innumerable further descendants, dispersed from California to Thailand, and a cat.
Praise for The Exterminator:
‘Brilliant – it makes you laugh and it makes you think’ – P.G Wodehouse
‘An elaborate and sardonic allegory for urban man’ – Sunday Times
‘Very amusing’ – New Statesman
‘An original blend of realistic farce and fantasy’ – Observer
‘Just as Evelyn Waugh sent up the American commercialisation of funerals in The Loved One, so another astringent British wit sends up the same country’s commercialisation of rat catching’ – Daily Mail
We are based in Dromore, Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. We can be contacted by telephone on 00353 (0) 28 32873 or 00353 (0) 87 233 1970, and by email at somervillepress@gmail.com
Our books are distributed in the UK by Central Books, 50 Freshwater Rd, London RM8 1RX, and in the US by Casemate, 1950 Lawrence Road, Haverton PA 19083.
Somerville Press also incorporates RUSSELL BOOK REPRESENTATION, a publishers' sales agency covering the whole of Ireland. The publishers we represent include Hurst Publishers (www.hurstpublishers.com), W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. (www.wwnorton co.uk) and Reaktion Books Ltd. (www.reaktionbooks.co.uk).