Kay lost laptop with his first novel

Phil Kay had to strike a shady deal after he lost his laptop containing 100,000 words of his first novel.

The Glasgow-based comic left the precious computer on top of a wall while taking his daughter, Coco, to a birthday party.

It contained ten months worth of work on his surreal book, which has the working title Though, and Kay had no backups.

He told the Glasgow Herald: "When you lose something that's not a person you can nearly always get it back. I have had practice at that. But it was not the material thing, it is just that I didn't protect my words."

But yesterday a mystery caller got in touch, asking Kay to put a price on the laptop's return. And after some haggling the comedian and stranger met up.

"I said I would be wearing blue and peeling an orange," said Kay.

Luckily the cautious handover went to plan, and the 33-year-old comic was reunited with his precious words.

Published: 24 Sep 2002