Mr. Toppit: A Novel

by Charles Elton

Overview

When Arthur Hayman, an unsuccessful screenwriter turned children’s book author, is accidentally hit by a cement truck in London, his dying moments are spent with a passing American tourist, Laurie Clow, who is fated to bring posthumous fame to his obscure series,  The Hayseed Chronicles, and the enigmatic and sinister Mr. Toppit who is at the center of the books. While Arthur doesn’t live to reap the benefits of his books’ success, his legacy falls to his widow, Martha, and their children—the fragile Rachel, and Luke, reluctantly immortalized as the fictional Luke Hayseed, hero of his father’s books. But others want their share of the Hayseed phenomenon, particularly Laurie, who has a mysterious agenda of her own that changes all of their lives as Martha, Rachel, and Luke begin to crumble under the heavy burden of their inheritance.
   Spanning several decades, from the heyday of the postwar British film industry to today’s cutthroat world of show business in Los Angeles, Mr. Toppit is a riveting debut novel that captures an extraordinary family and their tragic brush with fame to wonderfully funny and painful effect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590513910
Publisher:	Other Press, LLC
Publication date:	11/09/2010
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Charles Elton worked as a designer and editor in publishing before becoming a director of the Curtis Brown literary agency.  Since 1991 he has worked in television and for the past ten years has been the executive producer in drama at ITV. Among his productions are the Oscar-nominated short Syrup, The Railway Children, Andrew Davies’s adaptation of Northanger Abbey, and the recent series Time of Your Life.

Read an Excerpt

Although it was only some years after his death that my father was elected to the sainthood of children’s authors, the sales of the books had always been steady, though modest, and the name of Luke Hayseed not unknown among more progressive parents, who felt their children should not be shielded from the
cruelties and uncertainties of life—the very cruelties and uncertainties that were the stock-in-trade of the Hayseed books. But what is undeniable is that I was not, at that time, accosted by complete strangers in restaurants or pinned up against walls during cocktail parties by people telling me how I had ruined their childhood or—much, much worse—how I had been an inspiration to them.

Editorial Reviews

After British author Arthur Hayman dies unexpectedly, his children's book series becomes an equally unexpected success, and it's up to his son, Luke, the inspiration for the book's hero, to grow up in the public eye while struggling to keep his family together. Elton's dark comedy is superbly written but finds poor expression in Simon Vance's reading. Vance's overly resonant, excessively vibrant voice for the book feels false and affected, and his narration is prone to a few tics—notably hurtling through the beginnings of sentences, stopping for an instant on a final word or two, before attacking the next sentence in the same way. Elton's book possesses such inherent drama, witty dialogue, and complicated and conflicted characters, it's a pity that the listener can scarcely get beyond the reader's hammy styling and breakneck pace. An Other Press hardcover. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

This debut novel examines the unexpected consequences of literary fame…Elton takes a familiar course—dark familial secrets will out—but distinguishes it with a tender, wry treatment of his characters.”—The New Yorker

“Elton’s careful handling of a complex and thickly populated plot bears some resemblance to that of Jonathan Coe, with whom Elton shares a darkly humorous perspective on English life.”—Boston Globe
 
“Elton’s wry commentary on the business of iconography throws a deftly aimed wrench at the publicity machine that can be found beneath many of our most cherished cultural totems.”—Vogue.com
 
“Mr. Toppit doesn't seem to be intended as a cautionary tale...but Elton brilliantly presents the betrayal, the horror, of being used.”—New York Times Book Review

“A cultural satire encompassing a Harry Potter-esque literary empire, a Royal Tenenbaums-style dysfunctional family and an Oprah-type media figure, the book is both funny and sad.”—Newsday
 
“Told in several voices and all of them are high-pitched, Mr. Toppit is a high-jinks combination of Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, Madeline, The Secret Garden, The Simpsons and Arrested Development.”—Los Angeles Times

“Brutally comic… a strong debut, darkly funny and richly told, with often surprisingly penetrative emotional moments.”—Associated Press
 
“Darkly comic… sophisticated and witty… Mr. Toppit is great fun.”—Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

“Wonderfully written…It’s a nicely done coming-of-age story with some dark surprises and an entertaining level of tension.”—Bookreporter.com

“In this excellent debut, Elton tells the story of a complicated family stretched to its limits by sudden fame and unexpected acquaintances…Elton skillfully weaves together postwar England and a terrifyingly modern L.A., as well as the hopes and disappointments of frustrated mothers, neglected children, and clandestine lovers. While beautifully written and graced with a unique story line, it is Elton's characters who drive the novel and give it a depth uncommon in debuts.”  —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“This accomplished first novel chronicles the damaging effect of stratospheric fame on the lives of those who inherit it. Harry Potter enthusiasts will especially be drawn to it.”—Library Journal

“Skillfully written and oddly haunting…” —Kirkus Reviews

“Mr. Toppit is a darkly comic, thoroughly engaging narrative about a successful writer and the complicated legacy he leaves to his wife and children, and to the world at large. Charles Elton's witty and unsettling debut novel explores the emotional turmoil that results when a family's private history gets transformed into public myth.”  —Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher

“This is a brilliant novel—very funny, very sad and wickedly clever. I wish I had written it.”  —Zoë Heller, The Believers
 
“Dark, hilarious and cruelly honest, Mr. Toppit exposes some uncomfortable truths about the English and American mindsets, and the effect of celebrity on private lives. A truly smashing debut novel.”  —Christopher Fowler, author of the Bryant & May books

"One hot mess of a family romance....An engrossing, moving, and perceptive read." —The Times (UK)

"Mr. Toppit is part Royal Tenenbaums-style saga of a dysfunctional family...part coming-of-age tale...and part satire on the iniquities of celebrity and hype." —The Observer

"A chillingly mingled hit of love, need, and dread." —The Independent

"This is an extraordinary debut, not only for its confident storytelling but for its nerdish familiarity with such an eclectic range of subjects." —Sunday Times

From the Publisher

A chance encounter on a London street between a California tourist and an English children's author in the moments before his death is all it takes to propel The Hayseed Chronicles from obscurity into an international literary sensation. In the days following Arthur Hayman's fatal walk into traffic, Laurie Clow, the host of a radio show for seniors, attaches herself to his family and, in so doing, discovers the books based on his son's explorations into the woods beyond their Dorset home. Back in California, Laurie begins to read the books on the air. The resulting firestorm catapults Laurie to Oprah-like fame and creates a cult following and spin-off industry for the books. Three mysteries lie at the heart of this story—the disappearance of Laurie's father, the death in infancy of the Haymans' first son, and the enigma of Mr. Toppit himself, who appears only in the last sentence of the last book. VERDICT This accomplished first novel chronicles the damaging effect of stratospheric fame on the lives of those who inherit it. Harry Potter enthusiasts will especially be drawn to it.—Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.

Library Journal

In this debut novel by British TV producer Elton, a peculiar American turns a series of English children's books into international bestsellers, with bad results for the author's family.

Mr. Toppit is the dark, unseen force plaguing Luke, the boy hero of The Hayseed Chronicles, which became wildly popular only after author Arthur Hayman was killed in a London traffic accident. Arthur's son Luke resents "my childhood being ransacked," and his sister Rachel is even more upset about being left out; she's a mentally unstable drug addict. We learn this in the opening pages, then the scene shifts to 1981, when tourist Laurie Clow witnesses Arthur's accident and hears his dying words. The very strange Laurie immediately feels an intense personal bond with Arthur; it's clear little good can come of her worming her way into the shell-shocked household of Luke, Rachel and their mother Martha (who's got plenty of back story to feel guilty about). The novel is more than half over when Laurie begins reading The Hayseed Chronicles on a local California radio show; in no time, she's a celebrity, the books are being published in America and the Haymans are rich. Part Two mostly chronicles a disastrous summer five years later, when first Luke and then Rachel come to stay with Laurie in California. A final scene in 1995 follows Rachel into the woods near the Haymans' home in Dorset, looking for Mr. Toppit. Elton shifts among (too) many points of view, and we never understand why Rachel and Laurie are so damaged, or why Luke has managed to remain relatively sane and decent. That said, he's created some genuinely creepy characters, Laurie in particular, and he has some wicked fun with the entertainment industries.

Skillfully written and oddly haunting: Elton may have even better novels in his future.

Kirkus Reviews