Nole Moody Comedy from stranger places

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About Nole Moody

Nole Moody writes warm, funny fantasy for grown-ups who never quite stopped believing the world was stranger than it lets on.

Best known for the Mr. Gorzug series — an orc war-chief who becomes a much-loved English schoolteacher — Nole Moody specialises in monsters who turn out to be the most reasonable people in the room, and in the quiet magic still hiding in ordinary Britain.

The writing sits comfortably in the tradition of Terry Pratchett and Richard Osman: institutional satire that’s affectionate rather than cruel, comedy that never undercuts its quieter, kinder moments, and outsiders who somehow see us more clearly than we see ourselves. Beyond Gorzug there are goblins, familiars, space janitors and a seaside full of magically employed seagulls, all turning on the same gentle question: what if the monsters were the sensible ones?

One of those is nearly here: Corey Naylor – Space Janitor is a comic science-fiction novel with no dragons, no portals and nothing to do with Weird Britain. It’s on pre-order now, out on 23 August 2026, and it’s the first half of a two-book story that concludes in Hold My Mop.

There’s also one you can read this evening for nothing. The Garden Centre Will Remain Open is free in full on ArcReaders: a Yorkshire garden centre, an extradimensional refugee crisis, warning tape, and the practical limits of café hospitality. It’s the funniest thing here and, quietly, the most personal. It’s about a marriage under Alzheimer’s as much as it’s about the hole beside Aquatic Plants, and it’s free because I’d rather it reached anyone who needs it than earned anything.

The short version: dry British humour, real-world Britain with a dusting of fantasy, and an outsider’s eye on English life: queues, weather, weak coffee, and the strange religion of football very much included.

What you can expect

  • Comedy with the warmth turned up. Jokes that don’t punch down, and feelings that sneak up on you between them.
  • Stand-alone stories. Every Mr. Gorzug book resolves; no cliffhanger hostage situations. The two Corey Naylor books are the one exception, and deliberately so: they’re a single story told in two halves, and the second one finishes it.
  • A world that connects. Most of it shares one leaky, slightly-too-strange Britain. Here’s how it fits together.

Questions people actually ask

Is “Nole Moody” your real name?
It’s a pen name, and a fairly closely guarded one. Rest assured the green skin and the axe belong to the character, not the author.
Do I have to read the Mr. Gorzug books in order?
Each one is a complete, self-contained comedy. But read them in order and you’ll get the love story, the found family, and the slow-burn argument about where “home” really is, all of which land harder when you’ve watched them build.
Are these books suitable for younger readers?
They’re written for grown-ups, but they’re warm rather than crude. No gratuitous nastiness. Plenty of teen readers get on with them very happily.
Will there be more?
Yes. More Gorzug and more of the wider Weird Britain, plus Corey Naylor – Space Janitor, a comic sci-fi novel now on pre-order and out on 23 August 2026, with its concluding half, Hold My Mop, to follow. There is also one you can read for nothing right now: The Garden Centre Will Remain Open, set in a Yorkshire garden centre with an extradimensional opening beside Aquatic Plants, free in full on ArcReaders. The newsletter is the surest way to hear about each one.

You can find everything Nole Moody has published on the Amazon author page, or get in touch.