It begins with Brian's daughter, Rachel, visiting him in a psychiatric hospital, where he has ended up after having been missing for six years. The doctors believe him to be suffering from some form of psychosis and completely delusional, continually referring to him as an 'interesting case' because of the wild stories he has been telling them., and that's how the book is revealed, with Brian regaling his daughter with these fascinating tales in order that she may write them down and turn them into a book.
Obviously what we have here is a take on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, but rather more hilarious and good deal less reverent. He ends up in a country ruled by doctors where he has to eat 5 vegetables a day by law, exercise for 20 minutes a day or face arrest, and can only buy food on prescription. Indeed every human foible can be blamed on a syndrome or condition; Laziness Complex, Lateness Compulsion, Incompetence Syndrome - no right or wrong, only 'symptomatic behaviour'.
Once Brian has escaped from the doctors, he's captured by pigs and sent to a human farm. Being a rare breed he is put out to stud and made to have sex with a random stranger - not as a much fun as it sounds - but Brians experience makes him, and us, rethink our ideas about what we eat and why. In another tale, marriage is seen as a type of child abuse and in another fame can be used as currency.
The narrative is fairly straightforward, Rachel listens while her father speaks and only occasionally she'll pipe up to question the decisions he made or to speculate on whether there is a kernel of truth in anything he says, but Brian is funny and likeable and no matter how outlandish the tales or bizarre his actions you always root for him.
While it comes across as a simple memoir, lightweight and easy to read Brian Gulliver's Travels may be, but the underlying questions it asks are anything but lightweight to answer. Lampooning much of what we hold sacred, he satirises everything from altruism to religion, the nanny state, marriage, the cult of celebrity, politics and law and will leave you with many a moral conundrum to ponder.
That said, it is nicely written with tremendous verve and is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny so be careful if you read it on the morning commute as guffawing into your latte and spraying the person opposite will not go down at all well. Believe me.
Brian Gulliver's Travels is published by Pilrig Press, and is available with free delivery from The Book Depository and on the high street from Blackwell and all good book stores.
As you might expect, Bill Dare has a website and blog, he also Tweets and his eyebrows dance.