The Brentford Trilogy

The Brentford Trilogy is a series of twelve novels by writer Robert Rankin.

[1] They humorously chronicle the lives of a couple of drunken middle-aged layabouts, Jim Pooley and John Omally, who confront the forces of darkness in the environs of West London, usually with the assistance of large quantities of beer from their favourite public house, The Flying Swan.

The novels in this series are as follows: Several of Rankin's other novels feature Pooley and Omally, but are not part of The Brentford Trilogy: Although the books theoretically form a series, actually there is little continuity between volumes.

For example, the character of shopkeeper Norman Hartnell (not to be confused with the fashion designer of the same name) is abandoned by his wife yet is inexplicably reunited with her in later books.

Soap Distant also appears in later books as a Brentford resident despite being declared dead, becoming an albino and dwelling beneath the earth.