Bob Mortimer Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Bob Mortimer
Bob Mortimer was born May 23, 1959 in Middlesbrough, England. He grew up with three brothers in the town’s Linthorpe area. His dad, a biscuit salesman, died in a car wreck, when Bob was just seven. At around this same time, Bob burnt his family’s home down by accident with a stray firework.

He went to King’s Manor School in Middlesbrough, where his schoolmates included Ali Brownlee (a future sports presenter). He had trials for local team Middlesbrough FC, as he’s a keen football fan, however abandoned his dreams of footballing because of early onset rheumatoid arthritis. This gives him great pain when he gets stressed, particularly just before embarking on a tour or making a television series. On these occasions, he will control it with steroids.

Bob left school with three A-Levels and would go on to study law at the University of Sussex and the University of Leicester. While there, he got involved with political causes and the punk movement, even starting a group called Dog Dirt.

After he left university with an LLM in Welfare Law, he moved to London and became a solicitor for Southwark Council. Then he moved to private practice in Peckham, where his work with Public Health Act cases regarding cockroach infestations of council properties led to the South London Press (a local paper) calling him “The Cockroach King”. At this time, he was mugged by a client, who stopped and apologized after he was recognized him. Bob continued to represent his client.

Bob went to Goldsmith’s Tavern in New Cross, London in 1986, so that he could see this new show by Vic Reeves, a comedian. He was impressed by the performance, especially the character Tappy Lappy, which was Reeves trying to tap dance as he wore a Bryan Ferry mask and planks on his feet. Bob approached Vic after the show, and the two started writing material for the following week’s show together.

They became good friends and started a band together, called the Potter’s Wheel. Bob started performing on the show as well, which was christened as “Vic Reeves Big Night Out”, creating characters like Graham Lister, the Singing Lawyer, the Man With the Stick, and Judge Nutmeg.

Their show got successful in South London and would eventually outgrow Goldsmith’s Tavern, moving in the year 1988 to the Albany Empire in Deptford. Bob quickly became an integral part of the performance, providing him a weekly break from his legal work, which by that point had started to disillusion him.

They made their television debut on “One Hour with Jonathan Ross”, a short lived comedy chat show, in the game segment called “Knock down ginger”. Later that same year, the duo made “Vic Reeves Big Night Out”, their first TV pilot together. This show stayed true to the nightclub act’s variety show format. Bob took a 10 week break from his legal job to record this series and he never returned.

In October of 2015, he had triple bypass surgery, which meant the first leg of the Reeves and Mortimer 25 years tour had to be canceled. The first day he was admitted to the hospital, he married his girlfriend of 22 years, Lisa Matthews, under this special marriage license express from London. They have two sons together, named Tom and Harry.

He’s a lifelong fan of Free (a rock band) and Middlesbrough FC (his hometown soccer team). During his appearance on Desert Island Discs, he revealed that he dealt with his crippling shyness up until the age of 30, which just started improving after his initial TV success. He also reflected a bit on how his dad’s early death shaped his personality, despite not realizing exactly how much this event had affected him while he was a child.

Reeves and Mortimer were listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in 2003. They were voted 9th comedy act of all time in a 2005 poll to find the Comedians’ Comedian, which was voted on by comedy insiders and fellow comedians.

“The Satsuma Complex” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2022. Gary is a 30 year old legal assistant with a firm of solicitors in London. Describing Gary as anonymous would be rather unfair yet to notice him other than just in passing would be a rarity. He did make this connection with a girl, however this blew up in his face and smacked his ass with a fish slice.

Gary Thorn goes in for a pint with Brendan, a work acquaintance. Once Brendan leaves early, Gary meets this girl in the pub. He does not get her name, yet he still falls for her just the same. Once she vanishes without saying goodbye all of a sudden, all that he has to remember her by is the book that she was reading, this book called “The Satsuma Complex”. However once Brendan goes missing as well, then it’s time for Gary to track down the girl that he is now calling Satsuma to get some answers.

So starts Gary’s quest through the pie shops and estates of South London, all to finally bring a bit of excitement and love into his unremarkable life.

This is a page turning story with a cast of unforgettable characters, and is the brilliantly funny debut novel from Bob Mortimer, comedian and bestselling author.

It’s a fun and funny mystery that got some readers to giggle out loud at various points and the mystery was pretty well organized. Fans of the novel enjoyed reading Gary’s story, and Gary himself since he is very Bob-like, with a few tweaks.

The writing style is very reminiscent of how Bob will tell a story: sharp and short sentences which set the scene nicely without any kind of fluffery at all. It’s funny in the right places and proves that Bob is just a natural storyteller, with how he tells this story in his unique manner with ever so slightly skewed reasoning with an odd cheeky extra observation tossed in to knock you a bit off kilter.