Jake Wallis Simons’ first novel, The Exiled Times of a Tibetan Jew, was described by the Independent on Sunday as ‘incredibly funny and clever’, and named by them as a Book of the Year. Read the first page. A startlingly original black comedy with a hint of Benjamin Button, it is based around a fictional community of Jewish Tibetans founded by a ‘rabbi’ who claims to be the reincarnation of Moses. This absurd world provides an intriguing backdrop for an investigation into culture, heritage and identity that will have you swinging between vigorous chuckles and troubled chin-stroking.

Jake is currently writing a novel entitled The English German Girl, about a Berliner who is evacuated to England on a Kindertransport in the 1930s. Read the first page.