One Day I Shall Astonish The World

Nina Stibbe

Viking £14.99

Susan and Norma become friends while working in a haberdasher’s, and this comedy of manners charts their friendship’s ups and downs over 30 years. Susan has a child and gets married; both end up working at the local university; there is some adultery, some golf and other trappings of suburban life. Stibbe’s latest is sure to be eagerly received by her fans, but for this reader its humour felt underwhelming, and a denouement centred on the pandemic seemed contrived.

Simon Humphreys