Matthew Dooley Aristotle’s Cuttlefish

A story about mislaid umbrellas, questionable scientific theories and unlikely friendship - from the author of Flake, winner of the 2020 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize Where do all the lost things go? In Dobbiston, they'll likely end up in the care of Mr Daniels, the long-time custodian of the local lost property office. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the town council's shabby premises he has spent a lifetime quietly cataloguing the carelessness of his fellow Dobbiston residents. But when something unexpected interrupts his routine, Mr Daniels is forced to embrace a little bit of life's chaos. Told through Lost Property Office vignettes - a snooker cue love story, a granny’s tea cosy and a kid’s toy on an intergalactic adventure – local histories are elevated to the momentous and profound, drawn with playful nostalgia and Dooley’s deadpan wit. PRAISE FOR FLAKE 'A joy... think of Joff Winterhart with a cone and a squirt of strawberry sauce' Herald Scotland ' (A) wonderful, elegiac debut... full of irresistible puns' Observer 'A cheerfully nostalgic trip into a north western english town of pub quizzes, crazy golf and crosswords' Guardian