Caravan and tombstone included

Josie Long has signed a ‘healthy five-figure’ publishing deal for a book about leading a happy life in England.

But as well as the traditional advance, publishers Fourth Estate had to agree to stump up for a caravan and a tombstone, both of which are said to be essential to the creation and promotion of the book, which will be the comic's first.

Notes Towards A Secret Island, which will be released in spring 2012, is described as ‘part psycho-geography, part miscellany, part comic memoir, part self-help manual, part wild silly invention’.

Editor Robin Harvie said: ‘Crammed full of a ramshackle of stories and characters, Notes Towards The Secret Island will an adventure handbook for the country, and will feel rather like finding the diary of someone who has access to a different, invisible dimension to England.

‘It’s also an appreciation and celebration of the eccentric and the ignored with a strong leaning towards reader interaction, with each chapter involving a challenge or clue as part of a treasure hunt that the reader has to seek out, and will be accompanied by a unique online and digital experience, all of which will appeal to her growing cult audience.’

Published: 9 Jun 2010