The Gun Seller

The Gun Seller (1996) is Hugh Laurie's first, and to date only, novel. It concerns former Scots Guards officer Thomas Lang and his reluctant involvement in a conspiracy involving international arms dealers, terrorists, the CIA, the MOD, beautiful women and fast motorcycles.

Influences

There were two main influences on Laurie when he wrote the Gun Seller:

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• The thriller/espionage novels of authors such as Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth and Alistair MacLean. The plot of The Gun Seller is very much in the mould of these authors.
• P. G. Wodehouse, specifically the Jeeves stories. The two main characters in The Gun Seller - Thomas Lang and his former colleague Solomon - are clearly an updated Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. This similarity extends as far as the narrative being told in the first person by Lang in a chatty, jokey and flippant style which will be familiar to all readers of the Jeeves stories.