A SCOTS author has written a new novel all about the Covid-19 pandemic, in an attempt to cast some humour on the situation.
Charlie Laidlaw’s Being Alert! is described as “a funny book about a subject that’s anything but funny.”
The story begins in January 2020 as the fictional British prime minister, Winston Spragg, first learns about a new virus that seems to be centered in a city in China that nobody has heard of.
Being Alert! is the fourth standalone novel from East Lothian local Charlie Laidlaw and “follows in a long line of British satire”, poking fun at an inept prime minsters and dysfunctional government.
Charlie said: “As the country emerges into a new normal, the country will inevitably want to know why, per head of population, we have suffered worse than any other European country.
“Being Alert! provides the perfect outlet, not just to ask very real questions of government but to use humour as a satirical and healing tool.
“The book isn’t about the virus, which isn’t remotely funny, but about the UK government’s response to it. In that, it follows in a long tradition of British satire.
“It’s about holding up a mirror to unfolding events and questioning the accepted narrative that government tries to make us believe.
The book is available on Amazon. A fifth novel from the East Lothian writer, Everyday Magic, is due to be published in the first half of 2021.
