1. Scoundrels Volume One

2. Background

3. Critical reception

4. Scoundrels Volume Two: The Hunt For Hansclapp

5. Scoundrels Volume Three

6. References

Scoundrels is a comic adventure novel first published in 2017, by Major Victor Cornwall and Major Arthur St John Trevelyan (the pseudonyms of the authors Duncan Crowe and James Peak, who also feature as the book's unwilling editors). It is published by Black Door Press Ltd, of Fitzrovia, London and distributed by Turnaround Ltd, of Wood Green, London.

Scoundrels Volume One

Scoundrels Volume One was formally distributed to UK bookshops on 29 June 2017, quickly selling out the first edition. A second edition, with minor textual changes, was printed in July 2017. A second printing of the second edition was made available in December 2017 and a third printing of the second edition in February 2018. A third edition, with further minor textual changes, was distributed in November 2018.

Background

Revolving around the infamous gentlemen's club of Piccadilly, Scoundrels is the memoirs of the disreputable, antagonistic and unreconstructed Majors Victor Cornwall and St. John Trevelyan. The book relies on a complex conceit, that both Cornwall and Trevelyan were unhappy at the prospect of the other beginning work on an autobiography, for fear of their reputation being sullied. As their lives had been so horribly intertwined since their schooldays, the Majors eventually agreed to write a chapter each, in turn, of a joint autobiography. Scoundrels is epistolary - structured as a series of letters between the Majors, within which are chapters from their shared history. These letters contain a great number of astonishing adventures including panda hunting with the last Chinese Emperor, the storming of the Nazi Castle Klung Hammer and the heist of a Picasso painting. The book is very rude and contains adult themes of sex, violence, revenge and medical procedures carried out in unsanitary conditions, and therefore the editors are keen that this book should be kept well away from children. As an extra precaution, children should be kept well away from this book.

Scoundrels Volume One aka, 'Scoundrels', covers the years 1931–1951.

Critical reception

The book has received universally positive reviews for its humour, lightness of touch, imaginative storylines and for the combative relationship between Majors Cornwall and Trevelyan. The Daily Telegraph called it "immensely satisfying... a panda-hunting, Everest-climbing, Nazi-castle- storming adventure." Mark Time, author of Going Commando, said it was "seriously hilarious. The book I wish I could write. An ingeniously crafted farce that blunderbusses its way around the world in a rollicking mix of absurdity and brilliance." The book has received numerous five star reviews on amazon.co.uk and many favorable ratings at Waterstones, Foyles and Goodreads.com.

In August 2017 The Chap Magazine published a full page review of Scoundrels, by Mark Mason: "The trouble with most spoof biographies is that they don't concentrate enough on the 'biography' aspect. So desperate are they to get you laughing that they throw a million gags in your face, completely forgetting to make the central character interesting or even believable. The core genius of Scoundrels is that its authors have avoided that mistake. Right from page one, you love Major Victor Cornwall and Major Arthur St John Trevelyan, despite - or rather because of- the fact that they're grade one, nailed-on, ocean-going shits... Its the book's exquisite over-the-topness that keeps you coming back for more."

Scoundrels has provoked some interest in the value of "male banter" and about joint-writing enterprises, in both the Daily Telegraph and The Independent newspapers. The Daily Telegraph reported that "Scoundrels captures the essence of this humour as therapy. It celebrates a blokey, showboating spirit, outrageous boastfulness and sheer idiocy as elements that are vital to male happiness." It quoted Peak as saying: "I'd say humour is at the heart of most male friendships. Some blokes get together to play squash, some go down the pub, others tinker with motorbikes, but a lot of that time they are thinking 'how can I make these idiots laugh?'" and Crowe explaining: ""getting a laugh from someone is always gratifying – but even more so when you respect their sense of humour. It's a kind of validation. You make another bloke laugh who is your peer and their laughter is a recognition of truth. It's good for the soul."

In July 2017 Peak gave a radio interview to Hannah Murray's The Book Show on Talk Radio Europe about the challenges of writing a novel with a partner in which he revealed that the experience had proved "so enervating" that Scoundrels Volume Two will be published in September 2018. He also revealed that the authors have planned Cornwall and Trevelyan's life stories as "at least a trilogy" of novels, each to be more surprising, sordid and hilarious than the last.

Scoundrels Volume Two: The Hunt For Hansclapp

In April 2018 Turnaround's publishing schedule reported that Scoundrels 'Volume Two: The Hunt For Hansclapp', to cover the years 1952-1974, would be published in the UK, on September 6th 2018.

The second instalment sees The Majors bickering and boasting as they encounter kidnapping in the Congo, manslaughter on the Orient Express and romance at the Stasi Christmas Party.

The second book was published to excellent reviews in the Daily Mail ("What larks! All competently executed!") and in November was one of The Spectator Magazine's Books of the Year "The highlight in fiction was Scoundrels: The Hunt For Handclap... Duncan Crowe and James Peak once again pull off the balancing act achieved by only the very best spoofs - making it real enough to be believable, ridiculous enough to be funny." One reviewer, Sarah Douglas, wanted "to have a disastrous marriage with this book," describing it as "great fun and perfectly done."

In October 2018, Farrago Press took over as the Scoundrels series e-book publisher. Crowe and Peak made appearances at several branches of Waterstones and Foyles in London and the South East of England, to sign copies of the books.

In late November 2018, the second volume was nominated for the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award, for "author(s) who ... produced an outstandingly bad scene of sexual description in an otherwise good novel." Crowe and Peak are delighted to be considered for this award, which has been previously won by John Updike, AA Gill, Ben Okri, Melvyn Bragg, Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer.

Scoundrels Volume Three

A third novel, to complete the Majors' "canon trilogy", is due to be published in early 2020, by Farrago and Black Door Press. After this, Crowe and Peak intend to create a "universe of content, further exploring the Scoundrels Club's legacy of solving appalling diplomatics crises that The Crown and Whitehall refuse to touch, from the seventeenth century onwards."

References

• Edward Brown Jr.
• Edward Brown (UK politician)
• Edward Bruce Alexander
• Edward Bruce (archer)
• Edward Bryzemejster
• Edward Brzozowski
• Edward B. Seymour House
• Edward B. Smith
• Edward B. Smith & Co.
• Edward B. Spalding
• Edward B. Stratton
• Edward B. Talcott
• Edward B. Teague III
• Edward Buchanan
• Edward Buck
• Edward Buck (lawyer)
• Edward Buckley Wynyard
• Edward Buckner
• Edward Buggin
• Edward Buk Ulreich
• Edward Bullins
• Edward Bulwer (British Army officer)
• Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
• Edward Bulwer-Lytton Contest
• Edward Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest