Like most people, my first introduction to Alexei Sayle came in the early 1980s when he burst forth onto television screens as the axe-wielding homicidal maniac in The Young Ones (which he co-wrote). And, in spite of his many incarnations since then, you get a whiff of the same off-the-wall zaniness and acerbic wit from Barcelona Plates, his first collection of short stories.
The stories are firmly rooted in contemporary British life, with references to recognisable places, brand names and TV shows making the landscape a comfortably familiar one - until, that is, Sayle shatters this banal facade with one throwaway remark or casual action. In this way, a Merseyside pensioner gets a new lease of life as a contract killer for the Russian mafia and, in the title story, a bored thirty-something lad goes on a continental road trip with historic repercussions. Whatever the situation, black humour permeates the narrative as Sayle prods - rather heavy-handedly at times - at society's and his protagonists' moral fibre .
Characters here are vividly drawn and Sayle has a flair for giving each a distinct voice, although anyone familiar with the man himself will often hear his own chatty, scouse inflection in the narrating. His work as an actor and television writer also comes through - many of the stories are told in the first person, like monologues, and the action in most relates solely to the central character, as it would on screen. Still, there's a confidence and a vigour in the writing, and a brashness that is sometimes shocking and often very funny. In fact, Sayle never resists the temptation to pepper the tale with some zany detail or wry aside, though sometimes you wish he would - his writing is strong enough to stand alone without slipping into comic cliches. Nevertheless, in Barcelona Plates, he proves he is as sharp and inventive an onlooker on life's little oddities on the page as he is on screen - and that's no mean feat.
Catherine Heaney is Books Editor of Image magazine