Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls

Brentford #6

by Robert Rankin

It has always been John Omally's secret ambition to become a rock star. In his youth he mastered air guitar and wardrobe-mirror posing, but he lacked that certain something. Talent. But at last an opportunity has arisen for John to get into 'The Industry'. A band called Gandhi's Hairdryer are looking for a manager, so all John has to do is persuade them that he is the new Brian Epstein. It should be a piece of cake. But - and there's always a but - there is something rather odd about this band. Something other-worldly. It might be the lead singer, whose voice has the power to heal. Might she be an angel, perhaps? Or could she be the Devil in disguise? Because, after all, the Devil does have all the best tunes. And this is Brentford.

In this, his final offering of the twentieth century, Robert Rankin returns to the town of his birth, the friends of his youth and one of the loves of his life: Rock Music.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Comedy, Science Fiction, Comic Fantasy, Audiobook

271 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 1999

About the author

"When Robert Rankin embarked upon his writing career in the late 1970s, his ambition was to create an entirely new literary genre, which he named Far-Fetched Fiction. He reasoned that by doing this he could avoid competing with any other living author in any known genre and would be given his own special section in WH Smith."
(from Web Site Story)

Robert Rankin describes himself as a teller of tall tales, a fitting description, assuming that he isn't lying about it. From his early beginnings as a baby in 1949, Robert Rankin has grown into a tall man of some stature. Somewhere along the way he experimented in the writing of books, and found that he could do it rather well. Not being one to light his hide under a bushel, Mister Rankin continues to write fine novels of a humorous science-fictional nature.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there are one or two flashbacks of the chemical variety in this, the tale is back up to mr rankin’s best once again.

If only it were possible to slip back in time and prevent some of those untimely deaths; to hear the music live on….

[[ J o ] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Rankin novel, and by far not the funniest either. But it was classic Rankin in that it had running gags (throughout the book and from previous books, also) and the title alone deserves a star in itself.
The plot was a bit different to other Rankin novels I've read (I haven't read them all so I couldn't say for certain on some) but it was interesting and very entertaining as a break from the normal fantasy books I usually read, and was a lot more Sci-fi than I've come to accept from Rankin.

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sixth book in the Brentford Trilogy and another re-read. In which Jim Pooley and John O'Malley become the managers of a rock band called Gandhi's Hairdryers, while Soap Distant returns from the world below to find that history has changed but nobody else seems to have noticed. Not one of the better books in the series.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

John O'Mally and Jim Pooley are back and we get the sixth adventure in the increasingly mis-named Brentford Trilogy. O'Mally decides to pursue his life-long dream of getting into the music biz by managing an up-and-coming musical act, Gandhi's Hairdryer, while Jim pursues his dream of pulling off "The Pooley" six wins on six horses in one day. These dreams are unfortunately interrupted by the effects of time-traveling music fans at least one of whom has changed the course of the world. Only Soap Distant notices the changes when his return from exploring the world beloooooow is compromised by a world he never made.

It's all quite mad, as Rankin is. At this point it's become a tradition, or an old charter, or something. But it just doesn't seem as fresh as it did in the beginning. Still a fun read and nice to see Jim and John back in starring roles. But Rankin's technophobia is in full view here and he just doesn't seem to be able to keep his writing quite as fun as in the past.

[Izzy Ablewhite · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing happened but also lots happened…?? a very silly goofy book but honestly not my vibe

[Nathan Dehoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one of Rankin’s books full of weirdly meandering plots, conspiracy theories in action, and meta-referential humor. This time, recurring slacker protagonists Jim Pooley and John Omally attempt to manage a band called Gandhi’s Hairdryer, whom you might remember from their appearance in "Raiders of the Lost Car Park." Also involved is a group of time travelers who are attending all of the great rock concerts in history, and one rogue who changes history according to his a voice in his head. This leads to a world where the Beatles are still together in the nineties, but also where the Virgin Corporation has taken over England after the assassination of the Queen. Somehow, only Soap Distant, intrepid subterranean explorer who has been trying to sell his story, remembers how history is supposed to have gone. Shopkeeper Norman Hartnell is still performing his own style of science experiments, this time creating a unicorn. Other ideas incorporated into the book include a future in which everything possible has been discovered, and a lady who can read penises like palms. I’m kind of surprised the latter isn’t a real thing, actually. As usual, the resolution is confusing and creates as many questions as it answers, but getting there is one hell of an amusing ride.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Rankin pulls out all stops in this Brentford adventure! You have good vs evil, time travel, mythical creatures, the Beatles, the return of Soap Distant from the center of the Earth (which is now pretty much run by the Virgin corp.), sex (not really), drugs (occasionally) and sausage rolls?... Well, I guess there were a couple of biting incidents in the book which could be interpreted as involving sausage, so to speak... Small Dave is there and Norman and Neville and even a lady in a straw hat. The only reason I could never go higher than 4 stars is the awful poetry that worms its way between each chapter. Ugh. I am going to try and forgive the author for abusing me with his attempts at poetry and click submit before I drop it down to 3 stars!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book I have read from this author and although it seems to hark back to previous tales throughout this didn't really spoil my enjoyment as in itself this was a complete tale.
A tale of comedic proportions which offers time travel and alternative pop history as its back drop this was always an interesting read though I suspect only a taster of what I can expect from visiting this author in the future.
All in all I enjoyed this book it was engaging enough whilst reading but I suspect it's one I might not revisit just due to the fact that it didn't have the impact a book needs for me to 're read it.

[Simon Bostock · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This turn round, there are less evil forces at work, and more human forces of evil. John OMally always wanted to be a rock star, but in lieu of practising, he decides that he'll become a manager of Ghandi's Hairdryer, a rock band with potential. What follows is Jim Pooley and John OMally getting into scrapes, getting way over their heads, when their quick buck, chancer schemes, are almost the undoing of them.

This has all the usual running gags, recurring characters, and a time travel plot, that is explained with a very confusing chapter, testing if travelling to the past, will have an effect on the future. Soap Distant is back, and he becomes the main character driving the story. In a usual turn of events it all wraps up nicely.

I originally read the paperback edition but re-reading the kindle edition, I noticed that the poems that were at the end of each chapter were gone, and some of the swearing, was asterisk'd out, which was a little odd.

Overall, a fairly straightforward story, that doesn't have too many tangential plotlines, of the sort that featured in the earlier books of the trilogy.

[Geoff Battle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theres plenty of good news about Sex, Drugs and Sausage Rolls. It has a clever plotline. It is genuinely funny at times. It's complex, yet (mostly) the author tries to ensure you keep up. It's in touch with modern culture and isn't scared to be daring. It doesn't overstay it's welcome either, punchy and (mostly) to the point. Here comes the however. The writing style is inconsistent at times as Rankin steps out of storytelling to tell the reader things directly - it makes reading slighting uncomfortable when it happens. There are some gaping holes in the plot, which Rankin is clearly aware of and makes no apology for. Do those misdemeanours make a poor book? No sir. It's still typoical chaotic fun from start to finish. Better than most of his work, if you haven't read Rankin before it's a fine place to start. If you like Rankin then you'll be at home.

[Remy Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun stuff. I didn't realise this was the sixth novel of a series, but it really didn't matter - and almost added more depth since the characters had a lot more backstory.

Robert Rankin's writing is really fun too. Lots of quick wit throughout the book, the kind that I wish I could come up with in my daily life!

The story is a kind of comical farce whereby history has somehow shifted and things aren't quite what they're supposed to be.

I'm not quite sure if the story is supposed to have a single protagonist or whether it's more of an ensemble. It certainly _mostly_ follows Jim, John and Soap (great…weird, name!). Then there's multiple side characters that I half suspect might have more story in other Brentwood books.

All the same, it was really fun to read a book that clearly had a wide range of characters with more stories to tell.

[Andrew Lawston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being a no-particular-order reader of Robert Rankin's books for something over 25 years, I had somehow never read any of his Brentford series. A state of affairs that is particularly daft as I've been living happily in Brentford for the past five of those 25 years.

I've now rectified the omission with Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls - in which bits of the greatest borough are turned into skyscraping tower blocks... I'll leave it to strangely angry people in Facebook groups to supply the contemporary commentary there, as I live on the fifth floor of a modest-sized block myself.

Within a few chapters, though, Omally, Pooley, Soap Distant and Small Dave all felt like old friends, and I shall be working my way through the rest of the series in my usual haphazard fashion.

[Bay · Rating 5 out of 5]

About a quarter or so through this book I was confused because the back cover blurb appeared only tenuously related to the actual happenings therein, but I quickly learned that this book doesn't have plot threads so much as a plateful of plot linguine and the poor blurb-writer described roughly a fifth of the actual story because what else could they do, really? That might sound like an indictment, but holy fucking shit, this book was SUCH a good time. My mark of a really, really good book is one that makes me want to sit down and chat with the author, and I would pay a small fortune to see what I could pick out of Rankin's brain. Five stars!

[Ben Lund · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I liked this book least of all from Rankin's Brentford series. It is still as weird and strange as his other books, but it just feels different. I don't know if it's the more self-aware tone, like he knows its silly but he's still going for it, or the fact that there are all these weird songs/poems between each chapter. Whatever it was I didn't find myself really getting into the story like I usually do. As a result I did finish the story, but it was read in between other books when I had a moment or two to kill.

[Martin Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end of the second trilogy

I thought I had read all of the Brentford series. This one, with a masterful use of time travel and temporal paradoxes, was a surprise.

Pooley and Omally go into the music business, a potentially fatal decision as it is totally controlled by the new head of Virgin. Not Richard Branson.

[James Slaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve read up to the 6th Brentford trilogy book, then you already have the gist. Regarding the aspect of time travel that is the hook in this story, Rankin handles it admirably by having it be internally consistent and ignoring it when he needs to.

[Helle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very amusing with a good balance between storyline and puns. A lot of puns actually, I think I probably still missed a few. I consider Sex & Drugs & Sausage Rolls to be one of Rankin's best that I've read so far.

[Ant Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the paperback then heard the audiobook version. Very much enjoyed the absurdity of the plot and the whole narrative. Witty language and characters you just can't help but feel empathy towards, despite their hapless antics.

[David Robert Bloomer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confused, you may well be.

If you've read a Rankin book before you'll be pleased to know this is another enjoyable book. Its strange, confusing and ever so slightly mad.

[Sharon Weeks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cracking

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of fun but over long. Skimmed most of the second half

[T.J. Dallas · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐

[Mrs S E White · Rating 5 out of 5]

laugh out loud funny

[Dot Gumbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed feelings.

Most of Rankin's books start well. They get out of the blocks with a bang and before you know it, you're 100 pages in convinced you're reading his masterpiece. Then quite often the final two thirds of the book struggle to shine as brightly as the opening. Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls is a good example of this.

It tells the tale of Pooley and Omally meeting time-travelling future-types who come back to the 20th Century to watch the greatest musical acts of the age. However, the fandom of these future-types is so great, they change the past, meaning John Lennon never dies, and Elvis lives on long enough to record a rap album, and Richard Branson's Virgin empire to take over the world (well, Brentford).

So far, so good, but the plots gets a little too thick, with so much to juggle, that Rankin resorts to having one chapter in the final third devoted to reminding you what's going on, and it's not done in a gentle way, it's as subtle as a brick to the face. And it's never good when the author has to break free of the magical world he's created to say 'look, are you lot keeping up?' and then admits to a few potholes. He should get some time on the naughty step for that as it really disappointed.

However, what Rankin can do, regardless of whether the plot is working or not is write, strong sunny cartoonish prose with tremendous skill. The craft of his writing never wavers, it's just the plot that starts unraveling, and the sad feeling at the end of the book was that the amazing start wasn't followed up with an equally amazing ending.

Looking at it commercially, he was turning out a book a year on average when this came out - so, I'd guess he had a deadline to hit, a publisher to keep happy, and the next book to write - which is a shame as I couldn't help but feeling a bit cheated by the end of this book and wanted the author to try and bring everything together in more coherent and pleasing way.

Anything else? Oh yeah - there were no sausage rolls in this novel.

[Jade Heslin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is likely to offend some people but I find it baffling as to how anybody could enjoy this novel. I just didn’t find it funny at all. It’s written in a quirky style that brings to mind A Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy, but not a very good one. Although the Hitchhiker’s Guide was written in the seventies (my dad even read it at school, it’s that old) it has a sort-of timeless humour that still remains funny. This drivel however, was written in the nineties, and a lot of the jokes are already old hat. The book is set in the future where the world is run by Virgin and Richard Branson’s face adorns bank-notes. A lot of jokes are at Branson’s expense and I’m sure this would have made a scathingly astute statement about 10 years ago, but the truth is; nobody gives a shit about Richard Branson any more. There are bigger twats to worry about.

Story-wise it was a little confusing. The time travelling element was disorientating and the fact that some characters had non-human features like a transparent ‘hamster’ nose had me wondering what kind of a world this was set in. Perhaps starting at book 6 in the Brentford Trilogy’ wasn't the brightest of ideas, but it wasn’t my decision – book club is yet again to blame for this massive waste of time.

It took me ages to read this book and I am so glad that the ordeal is finally over.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rock and Roll and time travel. Wouldn't be cool to see the Beatles and Elvis on the same stage, as they reached their 70/80's? This was a new author for me. I gather he is English, as there is a lot of British slang I had a hard time connecting with. The story had a bit of a Douglas Adams feel to it with crazy, out of this world happenings like a unicorn appearing for no reason in the tale. Adams was always able to tie it all together though, and I didn't feel that Rankin succeeded here. Book felt very disjointed for me. I never got fully absorbed in the tale and had trouble remembering who was who.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just breezed through the whole book on a vacation. Clever and funny. At times the surrealism was a little too silly, the jokes a little too cute. I very much enjoyed the commentary on big corporations trying to own everything. It was weaved into the storyline much in the vein of Tom Robbins and Tony Vigorito. I would recommend this book especially to anyone who has read all of their books and is looking for something of a similar style!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I read by Rankin and it was pretty good! It took a bit for me to get into it, but I ended up enjoying it. It wasn't my favorite book of all time, but is worthy of four stars.
The whole idea of the book is pretty clever and the writing is pretty witty.

[Ian "Marvin" Graye]

Place Holder

I'm not sure whether this Rankin has grabbed me yet.

I remain open-minded. I'll try again.

At least he's trying to make you laugh.

[Stevenand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love it, for nothing more than the fact that my Mom bought it for me and asked in the shop for a book called "Sex and Sausages"