Diary of a Somebody

Product Information

His wife has left him for a more can-do fellow, his son has doubts about him, his cat does nothing but sit on him, he can’t get the hang of his jargon-ridden job or get around to reading any of his book group’s book choices, and a pretentious member of his poetry group has thousands of Twitter followers and a best-selling anthology. A new collection, Days Like These, which features a poem for every day of the year, published in October 2022. When Toby goes missing, just after the announcement of the publication of his first collection, This Bridge No Hands Shall Cleave , Brian becomes the number one suspect.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. The witticisms came thick and fast, sometimes so many punchlines in a row that at times I felt rather, um, punched. I absolutely loved this book and found myself chuckling for days at the penguin in the freezer, the man at number 29 and Toby Salt's poems. The brilliant thing about this whole structure is the way the banalities of life are turned into rhyming ditties and entries in the diary which are so wonderful to read.His contributions to the Poetry Group fall on unappreciative ground, while Toby Salt his rival is much admired and goes on to be published and fêted elsewhere. Literary Review * This fun, charming novel is a fine showcase for Bilston's irrepressible creativity . Brian is my hero, stuck in a rut, divorced with a teenage son with going nowhere job, dreams to become the next big poet.

But there is an obstacle to his happiness in the form of Toby Salt, his arch nemesis in the Poetry Group and rival suitor to Liz, Brian's new poetic inspiration. Meanwhile Dylan’s football team keeps being beaten 0–11, as he stands disconsolately on the wing waiting vainly to receive the ball. It is indeed mainly these things but with unfathomable pivot tables and blocked dishwasher pumps thrown in. So maybe you should also read this novel in short bursts, pausing to savour its individual brilliancies, such as this tweet on Star Wars Day: “Her name was Yoda / A show girl she was.And I love him * Spectator * Highly original, genuinely funny and clever, with a gentle humanity in between the lines. It also has genuine heart - and scores of poems so witty and accomplished that, in the real world, their author would surely be as famous as, well .