Diary of a Somebody

In a shared flat somewhere in West London, bachelor Simon Crisp has started work on a diary that bears a striking resemblance in wit and style to the Grossmiths' classic Diary of a Nobody, published over a century ago. Nothing for Crisp ever quite comes up to expectations, whether he is the victim of the PR man who involves him in 'free' meals and trips to Venice where every single tourist sight is somehow missed, or being offered jobs in television that mysteriously fall victim at the last moment to budget cuts. Friends use him shamelessly as budgie minder, babysitter and amorous poste-restante. Girl friends - such as nouveau-leftist Victoria or ever plainer Jane - seem less than wild about his charms. Yet, at last, coping with the humiliations of hurled apple cores, locked jaws, and exploding plastic pants, he seems poised to achieve the dream of every young man of ambition: true love and promotion at a single stroke.
Diary of a Somebody is a very funny account of nine accident-prone months in the life of a young man brought up for better things than he is quite up to achieving.


Genre: Literary Fiction