Mortimer wins Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with The Satsuma Complex

Bob Mortimer has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction for his “funny and clever” debut novel The Satsuma Complex, published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.   

Now in its 23rd year, the award is the UK’s longest running prize for comic fiction and is designed to highlight the funniest novel of the past 12 months, which best evokes the Wodehouse spirit of “witty characters and perfectly-timed comic phrases”.  

The announcement was made this evening (20th November) at a ceremony held at The Goring Hotel in London. Mortimer received a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année, the complete set of the Everyman’s Library P G Wodehouse collection, and a pig named after his winning book. 

Receiving his prize, he told the crowd he was recovering from shingles and "didn’t think that I had a cat in hell’s chance". "I’m sure there’s some luck involved in this" he said. "It could have been another winner on another day I’m sure. This is fabulous. If I think about it I would swap all the other awards I’ve won for this one. And I’ve won processed meat advocate!"

The Satsuma Complex tells the story of Gary Thorn, a 30-year-old legal assistant with a firm of solicitors in Peckham, London. Gary goes for a pint with a work acquaintance called Brendan. When Brendan leaves early, Gary meets a girl in the pub. He doesn’t catch her name, but falls for her anyway. When she suddenly disappears without saying goodbye, all Gary has to remember her by is the book she was reading: ‘The Satsuma Complex’. But when Brendan goes missing, Gary needs to track down the girl he now calls Satsuma to get some answers. And so begins Gary’s quest, through the estates and pie shops of south London, to finally bring some love and excitement into his unremarkable life… 

Mortimer said the book is about "lonely, shy people and if something could happen in their life to just pull them out of that". "I got very lucky and I went on the TV" he said. "I was a very shy lad, so I got that little gift and became a completely different person, so the chap in the book that I wrote is me, if I had been that age and had been willing to speak to someone. Had been bothered to get involved in the world. But mainly I did it to try and make people laugh. I couldn’t be more pleased."

Mortimer is best known as half of duo Reeves and Mortimer. His screen credits include “Shooting Stars”, “Big Night Out”, “Catterick” and most recently BBC2’s “Gone Fishing”. His memoir And Away… (also Gallery) was published in 2021.  

Peter Florence, chair of the judges, added: “He approaches the world with a sly, mischievous smile. I guess this is what happens when you turn a brilliant, oblique comedic attention to life. The language and the tone tip your perception all the time, and he has this strange ability to keep the reader on the very brink of guffawing for whole chapters at a time. You get to love all these characters, the good ones and the bad ones and the very bad ones. And you’ll start talking to squirrels. And then you’ll have to think around what that’s achieving for you.” 

The other 2023 shortlisted titles were: Darling by India Knight (Fig Tree); Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham (Europa Editions); Mother Hens by Sophie McCartney (HarperNorth); Murder at Crime Manor by Fergus Craig (Sphere); and Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors by Aravind Jayan (Serpent’s Tail).