Boozy hack digs up the truth
SPLASH! by Stephen Glover (Constable £18.99)
WITH a title that’s an obvious nod to Evelyn Waugh’s celebrated 1938 Fleet Street satire Scoop, the new novel from Daily Mail columnist and former editor Stephen Glover offers a modern take on the tabloid Press.
Its hero, Sam Blunt, is a drunken hack on the Daily Bugle. His future is all behind him as he struggles to adjust to working practices that don’t include a five-hour liquid lunch.
But just when it seems only a question of whether the sack or liver failure comes first, he stumbles upon the story of the decade, involving shady dealings between a corrupt, libidinous MP and a Chinese billionaire.
Helped by rookie reporter Benedict Brewster, Sam finds himself pitted against not only the powers-that-be, but also the Bugle’s brutal and unscrupulous deputy editor.
This is both a terrific romp through the indiscretions, dodgy deals and Establishment stitch-ups of our times, and an invaluable reminder of just how vital the Press is in holding power to account.
PERFECT LITTLE WORLD by Kevin Wilson (Picador £14.99)
ALONE, pregnant and broke, 18-year-old Izzy has no family to help bring up her baby, so she signs up to The Infinite Family Project.
Funded by a billionaire and run by childcare expert Dr Preston Grind, it’s a study involving Izzy and nine couples, each with a new baby, who live as a community in a special centre in Tennessee.
The children will be communally reared until the age of five, after which they will live with their parents.
The goal is to create an extended family, something fast disappearing today. Well, that’s the utopian ideal Dr Grind hopes for, but, of course, the plan cannot predict human nature.
As Izzy finds herself increasingly at home in the Family, tensions begin to threaten the project.
A witty, thought-provoking take on parenthood.
MY LIFE IN LISTS by Guy Browning (Square Peg £12.99)
EVER since Nick Hornby made lists a prominent feature of High Fidelity, they have made increasing inroads into the modern novel, culminating in one here consisting of nothing else. We follow Guy Browning’s unnamed hero from childhood to middle-age through the lists he makes.
He’s obsessive and nerdy, though the necessary character development means he eventually evolves beyond the compulsion to write in bullet points.
It’s often funny, for example, after losing his virginity he notes: ‘I didn’t expect sex involving me could be that good.’ And one of the reasons his dad gives for not studying English literature is: ‘There’s a genuine danger of slipping into amateur dramatics.’
The whole thing is slight, but reasonably amusing.