SIMON RICH is a graduate of Harvard University, where he was president of The Harvard Lampoon. Shortly after graduation he became a writer for Saturday Night Live. He worked on Inside Out for Pixar and is currently writing and producing the hit comedy Man Seeking Woman. He lives in New York City.

PRAISE FOR ELLIOT ALLAGASH

“A sharp, clever, blisteringly funny debut.” The Times

“Clueless for boys … suspect that, if he had a literary ancestor in mind as he charted Seymour Herson’s rise, it was not Austen or [Amy] Heckerling, but Evelyn Waugh … studded with rococo set pieces of ruthless masculine one-upmanship … a joy to read … Open the book on the beach or by the lake, and shed a crocodile tear, if you can muster one, for the craven ambition of youth.” Daily Beast

“A true original and incredibly readable … Funny, smart and generally bloody brilliant – read it.” Heat

“A canny mixture of wish-fulfilment, fantasy and morality tale … The most enjoyable classroom comedy since Tom Perrotta’s Election.” FT

“If ever a book seemed custom-made for adaptation into a successful teen movie, the debut novel from Saturday Night Live writer Simon Rich is it. The plot is like that of the greatest film John Hughes never made: less Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, more Ferris Bueller’s Adolescence Off … a winning comic formula. Peppered with riotous teen angst – and effortlessly readable – this is a novel that one consumes like a pleasantly tangy packet of crisps.” Tom Cox, Daily Mail

“Rich is intimately familiar with the subject, and nails everything. The novel is assured, deft in its rendering of teen relationships and, perhaps more remarkably, funny without resorting to the kind of gross-out humour common in this sort of setting. All laughs and no barfs, it’s a breezy read.” Guardian

PRAISE FOR WHAT IN GOD’S NAME

“Divinely funny” Vanity Fair

“One of the funniest writers in America … Rich evokes enough of the hellish qualities of Earth (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Walmart, a screenplay for Finnegans Wake) and of the little things that we’ll miss (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Walmart, a screenplay for Finnegans Wake) that it feels like a little love letter to the world. Thanks, life. Good of you to let me drop by.” Daily Beast

“Truly hilarious” Eva Wiseman, Observer

“Hilarious and touching … rest assured that you’re in good hands here … obviously Rich is crazy good at hysterical sharp dialogue. But the bonus here is that his head is matched by his heart. Rich lends the potentially gimmicky story real emotional heft and avoids condescending to his characters (or readers). At its best, What in God’s Name reads like a screenplay for a film that might sit comfortably beside Woody Allen’s early absurd works in a Netflix queue … a clever, endearing novel.” Entertainment Weekly

“Elliot Allagash, drew comparisons to Evelyn Waugh and P. G. Wodehouse. His new novel, What in God’s Name, evokes another titan of English comedy: Douglas Adams … Funny and occasionally touching, What in God’s Name is satire that avoids sanctimony … Rich knows how to balance the smart with the funny. When What in God’s Name bares its teeth, it’s because it’s laughing.” New York Times

“Rich’s play on office politics and his understanding of the comic potential of human relationships is accurate enough, producing an appealing mixture of subtle and laugh-out-loud funny.” Independent on Sunday

“Like Kevin Smith’s Dogma via Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, it takes a lovingly satirical swipe at religion.” Grazia

PRAISE FOR THE LAST GIRLFRIEND ON EARTH

“A collection of sweet stories full of whimsical, gently moving tales of love and loss, thwarted come-ons and doomed crushes … Put it in your pocket and take it out whenever you need a five minute break from the tedium of everyday.” The Gloss

“Most original and highly amusing. Rich manages to turn the banal into the absurd … hilarious and touching … and impossible to put down. A perfect cheer-up for the romantically challenged!” Image

“The Last Girlfriend On Earth is silly, surreal, sometimes sad and always laugh-out-loud funny. This collection will have you giggling/crying/squirming in recognition, and wondering what exactly Simon Rich has eaten to dream all this stuff up … This collection pulls off the tough trick of being both heart-warming and hilarious – it’s a must-read if you’ve ever so much as had a crush on someone.” Heat

“Pithy, occasionally bonkers … expect any weeping to be of the laughter-induced variety.” Time Out

“A James Thurber for our times, in Borges’ suit wearing Flann O’Brien’s hat.” Ian McMillan, BBC Radio 3 The Verb

“It would be almost a relief to find that The Last Girlfriend on Earth was another of those American humour collections by a writer falling short of their hype as an heir to David Sedaris and James Thurber, just to be reassured that Rich wasn’t good at everything. As it happens, it’s brilliant: a kind of modern version of Woody Allen’s Without Feathers for anyone who’s been in love … Only a couple of times within the next 29 pieces does Rich hit a note that’s not either topsy-turvy imaginative, riotously funny or hugely insightful … Beneath the clear ambition to make people laugh, there’s another book lurking here: a guide to the idiocy and sensitivity of men that could be more valuable to the opposite sex than a million ‘How To Please Him’ women’s mag articles. Rich has a wisdom about male-female interaction that most have to wait far, far longer than 28 years to gain.” Tom Cox, Observer