Sproutlore is no more. After more than ten years of service Sproutlore's illustrious leader, Mr James Bacon, decided to retire from service to the fans of Rankin, and passed he torch to a new leader.

Our new guv'nor Ian "Captain Fantastic" Case, after much consultation and deliberation, decided not to retain the old name as Sproutlore was very much James' thing. James was Sproutlore and Sproutlore was James.

The new club retains the approval of Robert himself, so here we are, a new club with a new name, a new leader, a new deputy (Dr Graham Hill), a new website (although James Shields stays on as the club's webmaster), a new magazine, and a new Official Robert Rankin Fan Club: The Order of the Golden Sprout. 

We hope you'll show the new club the same support you showed Sproutlore, and look forward to seeing you all at future events of a sproutie nature.

The general consensus seems to be that it's not hugely important to read the books in a certain order, but if you must, there are two ways to do so. You can either stick to the order in which they were originally published, or you can work your way through the books in a particular trilogy or series.
Note that the the bracketed terms after the listings are links to Amazon where you can purchase the books (PB) = Paperback, (HB) = Hardback, (TPB) = Trade Paperback, (CD) = Audio CD, (AC) = Audio Cassette (DA) = Ducks Arse, I mean er Digital Audio of course. An asterisk (*) indicates a full cast radio production.
N.B. a small percentage of the purchase price of the books will go to the club if you use these links.

By Publication Date:

• The Antipope (1981) (PB) (CD)*
• The Brentford Triangle (1982) (PB)
• East of Ealing (1984) (PB)
• The Sprouts of Wrath (1984) (PB)
• Armageddon: The Musical (1988) (PB)
• They Came and Ate Us (Armageddon II: The B Movie) (1991) (PB)
• The Suburban Book of the Dead (Armageddon III: The Remake) (1992) (PB)
• The Book of Ultimate Truths (1993) (PB)
• Raiders of the Lost Car Park (1994) (PB)
• The Greatest Show Off Earth (1994) (PB)
• The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived (1995) (PB)
• The Garden of Unearthly Delights (1995) (PB)
• A Dog Called Demolition (1996) (PB)
• Nostradamus Ate My Hamster (1996) (PB)
• Sprout Mask Replica (1997) (PB)
• The Brentford Chainstore Massacre (1997) (PB)
• The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag (1998) (PB)
• Apocalypso (1998) (PB)
• Snuff Fiction (1999) (PB)
• Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls (1999) (PB)
• Waiting for Godalming (2000) (PB)
• Web Site Story (2001) (PB)
• The Fandom of the Operator (2001) (PB)
• The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (2002) (PB) (HB) (CD) (AC)
• The Witches of Chiswick (2003) (PB) (HB)
• Knees Up Mother Earth (2004) (PB) (HB)
• The Brightonomicon (2005) (PB) (HB) (TPB) (CD)* (DA)*
• The Toyminator (2006) (PB) (HB) (TPB)
• The Da-da-de-da-da Code (2007) (PB) (HB) (TPB)
• Necrophenia (2009) (PB) (HB) (TPB)

By Series:

The Brentford Trilogy

• The Antipope (1981) (PB) (CD)*
• The Brentford Triangle (1982) (PB)
• East of Ealing (1984) (PB)
• The Sprouts of Wrath (1984) (PB)
• The Brentford Chainstore Massacre (1997) (PB)
• Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls (1999) (PB)
• Knees Up Mother Earth (2004) (PB) (HB)
• The Brightonomicon (2005) (PB) (HB) (TPB) (CD)* (DA)*

The Armageddon Trilogy

• Armageddon: The Musical (1988) (PB)
• They Came and Ate Us (Armageddon II: The B Movie) (1991) (PB)
• The Suburban Book of the Dead (Armageddon III: The Remake) (1992) (PB)

Cornelius Murphy Novels

• The Book of Ultimate Truths (1993) (PB)
• Raiders of the Lost Car Park (1994) (PB)
• The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived (1995) (PB)

The Trilogy That Dare Not Speak Its Name

• Sprout Mask Replica (1997) (PB)
• The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag (1998) (PB)
• Waiting for Godalming (2000) (PB)

The Witches Trilogy

• The Witches of Chiswick (2003) (PB) (HB)
• Knees Up Mother Earth (2004) (PB) (HB)
• The Brightonomicon (2005) (PB) (HB) (TPB)

Eddie Bear Novels

• The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (2002) (PB) (HB) (CD) (AC)
• The Toyminator (2006) (PB) (HB) (TPB)

Standalone Novels

• The Greatest Show Off Earth (1994) (PB)
• The Garden of Unearthly Delights (1995) (PB)
• A Dog Called Demolition (1996) (PB)
• Nostradamus Ate My Hamster (1996) (PB)
• Apocalypso (1998) (PB)
• Snuff Fiction (1999) (PB)
• Web Site Story (2001) (PB)
• The Fandom of the Operator (2001) (PB)
• The Da-da-de-da-da Code (2007) (PB) (HB) (TPB)
• Necrophenia (2009) (PB) (HB) (TPB)

Obviously there's no definitive answer to this. so we've created a thread on the forum where you can discuss it.

Again, no definitive answer to this, so there's a thread on the forum for discussing it.

The best place to buy Rankin stuff is from our very own Sprout Shop. We sell badges, t-shirts and other items of "Rankinalia"; and of course by buying from us you're helping the club to lay on events and promote Robert's works.

You will also find various items on eBay, and people have been known to post links to their Rankin related auctions on the forum, so keep your eyes peeled.

There's two categories here: authors that tend to be compared to Robert, and authors that inspired him.
In category one:

• Terry Pratchett - (view Terry Pratchett books at Amazon) (Find out more about Terry Pratchett on Wikipedia)
• Tom Holt - (view Tom Holt books at Amazon) (Find out more about Tom Holt on Wikipedia)
• Jasper Fforde - (view Jasper Fforde books at Amazon) (Find out more about Jasper Fforde on Wikipedia)
• Douglas Adams - (view Douglas Adams books at Amazon) (Find out more about Douglas Adams on Wikipedia)
• Tom Sharpe - (view Tom Sharpe books at Amazon) (Find out more about Tom Sharpe on Wikipedia)

and in category two:

• Flann O'Brien - (view Flann O'Brien books at Amazon) (Find out more about Flann O'Brien on Wikipedia)
• Spike Milligan - (view Spike Milligan books at Amazon) (Find out more about Spike Milligan on Wikipedia)
• Kurt Vonnegut - (view Kurt Vonnegut books at Amazon) (Find out more about Kurt Vonnegut on Wikipedia)
• Jack Vance - (view Jack Vance books at Amazon) (Find out more about Jack Vance on Wikipedia)

If you want to chat to people on-line, then our forum is the best place to do it.

If you want to talk the proverbial toot with us "In Real Life" (whatever that is), then you should come to one of the club events. They're always fun and everyone is very friendly. Oh OK maybe not everyone, but most people are very friendly and some of them are even sane.

Well, there's quite a few on various sites around this here interweb; among them are the following:

• The Order of the Golden Sprout Galleries
• Ian's Galleries at mac.com
• www.brighton-rock.net's galleries 

If you hunt around on Brighton Rock, you'll also find pics from the Pagan wedding of Tim and Loz McGregor that Robert officiated at, and the Brighton rock club he opened (The Engine Room)

There's also loads of pics on various people's facebook accounts. If you wanna see those, join the club, chat to the people, they'll soon add you as friend on the FB.

Well, I know this great website, I understand they have a biography, reviews and even apparently a groovy forum where you can chat to other Rankinphiles about... well about just about anything really! In addition to that, there's Robert's Wikipedia article.

We are aware of French and German editions; also, at least one of Robert's novels has also been translated into Polish. although we don't currently have details of this.

French Editions
Bragelonne are Robert's French publishers and at this stage have published the following

• Le Livre des vérités ultimes (The Book of Ultimate Thruths) (pb)
• Les Aventuriers du Parking Perdu (The Raiders of the Lost Carpark) (pb)
• (Il était une fois...) L'Homme le Plus Mieux de Tous les Temps (The Most amazing man who ever lived) (pb)
• Armageddon, la Comédie Musicale (Armageddon the Musical) (pb)

They are all available through amazon.fr (click the links above to purchase)

German Editions
Robert Rankin's German publisher is Lübbe. They have published quite a few of his books, listed below, (click the links after each book to purchase)

Die Brentford-Trilogie (The Brentford Trilogy)

• Der Antipapst (The Antipope) (pb)
• Die Akte Brentford (The Brentford Triangle) (pb)
• Jenseits von Ealing (East of Ealing) (pb)
• Kohl des Zorns (Sprouts of Wrath) (pb)
• Das Kettenlädenmassaker (Brentford Chainstore Massacre) (pb)

Der Elvis-Zyklus (The Elvis Cycle AKA Armageddon Trilogy)

• Armageddon – Das Musical (Armageddon - The Musical) (pb)
• Armageddon – Das Menü (Armageddon - The Menu???) (pb)
• Armageddon – Das Remake (Armageddon - The Remake) (pb)

Der Hugo Rune-Zyklus (The Hugo Rune Cycle)

• Das Buch der allerletzten Wahrheiten (The Book of Ultimate Truths) (pb)
• Jäger des verlorenen Parkplatzes (Raiders of the Lost Carpark) (pb)
• Der wundersamste Mann, der jemals lebte (The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived) (pb)

Other Novels

• Die Größte Show Jenseits der Welt - The Greatest Show Off Earth (pb)
• Der Garten Unirdischer Gelüste - The Garden of Unearthly Delights (pb)
• Apocalypso - Apocalypso (pb)
• Der Tanz der Voodoo-tasche - The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag (pb)
• Warten auf Oho! - Waiting for Godalming (pb) (cd)
• Web Site Story - Web Site Story (pb)
• Starker Tobak - Snuff Fiction (pb)
• Die Apokalyptischen Schokohasen - The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (pb)

Robert's German publisher also published a short story of his in a halloween special, which seems to be currently unavailable.

• Halloween