Bleak Expectation by Mark Evans

Being the sort of person who loves parodies, particularly parodies of Victorian novels, I was eagerly looking forward to reading this. I also enjoyed The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff (although I think it might’ve been a little bit too niche). It didn’t disappoint, I really enjoyed it and kept getting asked what I was laughing at by work colleagues. It captures all the silliness of the worst excesses of Victorian fiction – the crazy names (loved Mr. Gently Benevolent, Mr. Skinflint Parsimonius and the Hardthrasher family), the weaving plots, the standard characters that appear (Flora Dies-Early the brainless beauty) but uses other techniques such as footnotes and made-up historical facts. Unlike some parodies that only exist to lampoon their original materiel, it’s funny in a surrealist way as well. Ridiculous and brilliant. Hoping for a sequel and will try and check out the radio broadcast too. 

Dear Pip Bin,

In the end I did go and join the army. I wish I hadn't. It is awful. For starters, it turns out I have a terrible fear of the colour read, which is not ideal, what with the uniform, all the blood and the rations being mostly tomato soup. And they made me kill two men. With my bare feet. Which was horrid.

Yours ever,

Harry

P.S. I did see a funny pigeon though. Hilarious!

(p283 Bleak Expectations)