Review: One Day

Synopsis

'I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.'

He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.'

15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.

So where will they be on this one day next year?

And the year after that? And every year that follows?

Quick Thoughts

“You're gorgeous, you old hag, and if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this. Confidence. It would be the gift of confidence. Either that or a scented candle” David Nichols - One Day 

I started One Day a few weeks ago then dropped it as I made the mistake of reading Mike Gayle's His and Hers and the obsession with Mike Gayle took me away from Dexter and Emma for the next two weeks. So when I finished Dinner For Two on Friday I picked up One Day only to obsess about it and ultimately finish it in two days.

One Day is centered around two characters Dexter and Emma and follows them over a twenty year period.
 Dexter Meyhew an over indulged, pampered, public schooled turned TV presenter is an embodiment of arrogance and self assurance. He takes life by the  horns, achieves success only to turn into a chaotic self destructive mess. Emma Morsely is a middle class, waitress and struggling writer who lacks confidence misses opportunities and feels sorry for herself. She is a mess also but a self assured mess, a mess type of person who has an affair but justifies it with at least there are no children involved type mess. She controls her mess of a life with Ian only breaking up with him after wasting so much time.

This a charming, almost too realistic splurge into the lives of two people who avoid facing the truth until they have no choice but to. As a Nineties child I feel cheated as I feel like I should have lived in the glorious 1980's with trips to Paris and endless opportunities and excessive wealth instead of having to face David Cameroon's recession.

If there is a writer out there whose mastered irony, cynicism with a hint humor its Nichols. He masters all three without batting an eyelid. I was fuming as to how good this book is.  The pages aren't filled with inanity or false humor, the characters are complex and open yet you never truly know what the next page will hold. Nichols reminds us of the hopes and dreams of the those in the early twenties as well as showing the depressing reality of struggling with age.  I live in awe of David Nichols.

Review: Starter For Ten

Synopsis

It's 1985 and Brian Jackson has arrived at university with a burning ambition - to make it onto TV's foremost general knowledge quiz.

 But no sooner has he embarked on 'The Challenge' than he finds himself falling hopelessly in love with his teammate, the beautiful and charismatic would-be actress, Alice Harbinson. When Alice fails to fall for his slightly over-eager charms, Brian comes up with a foolproof plan to capture her heart once and for all. 

He's going to win the game, at any cost, because - after all - everyone knows that what a woman really wants from a man is a comprehensive grasp of general knowledge...Starter for Ten is a comedy about love, class, growing-up and the all-important difference between knowledge and wisdom. Are you up to the challenge of the funniest novel in years?

Purchase

Review 

We've been told that our days are university days will define and shape the rest of our lives. This is the notion I had in my mind whilst embanking on my life at the University of Sheffield. I was told I would make numerous numbers of friends with great personalities and memories that will last me a lifetime. 

They (the UCAS advert) people lied. Although I did meet wonderful people I also met a few posh ones, the ones with more money than sense, the “oh look my daddy owns a bank” type of girls. Starter for Ten David Nichols reminded me of why some of my days at University were at times challenging and fraught. The story starts with Brian, a working class boy heading off to the great adventure that is University. He hopes to join the University Challenge Team with the ultimate goal of winning the television show. On his first night at University he meets and falls in love with Alice, a rich, spoilt and promiscuous wannabe actress. When Alice fails to fall in love with him, what ensues is a traumatic venture into the mind of teenage boy in love.  

This is a story of youth and falling in love for the first time. Falling in love at such an age can charming and filled with happy memories, watching Brian fall in love is neither of those things, it is embarrassing and filled with cringe worthy moments. Starter for Ten is realistic in its view of university with the inane lectures, posh boys with more money than sense and politically charged girls.