Comedian Owen O’Neill is publishing his first novel.

Tom Joad And Me is about teenager Emmet McCrudden, who escapes his large working-class Co Tyrone family and drunken violent father to head to London, where he adopts the persona of Tom Joad, the  protagonist of John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath.

The action is set in 1970s London, where the pub rock scene is in full flow, and McCrudden is writing for a music magazine while working on building sites. Publishers Thirsty Books call the title – which will be released on May 31–  ‘darkly comic and moving’.

Fellow comedian Phill Jupitus has provided a quote for the cover, describing the book as ‘a raw and lively tale with a vivid cast of characters all looking for better lives and how far they’ll go to achieve them. In turn tender and hilarious dispatches from the building sites and boozers of pre-Thatcher London and Ireland.'

O’Neill – who started performing as a poet at was nominated for the Perrier award at the 1994 Edinburgh Fringe – has previously written one-man stage shows, two stage plays and an adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption, as well as a number of short stories.

Tom Joad And Me is being launched at the Irish Cultural Centre in London on June 5. Tickets.

Here is O’Neill talking about the book: