'60s set novel (well, it starts in the '60s anyway) about Barbara Parker, who's got ambitions that go further than winning Miss Blackpool. She moves to London and gets herself an acting job, which ends up being in a fantastically popular sitcom.

Like most of Hornby's books, this was an absolute joy to read. So readable and a nice story - a bit Nobbs-ian really. It's now several months since I read it so I am hazy on details. Made a note of this section:

Edith was tall, dark, beautiful and clever, and when she agreed to marry him his friends made the kinds of jokes that friends were supposed to make in those circumstances, all of them various articulations of disbelief along the lines of 'How did you hook her, you lucky so-and-so?' They didn't seem so funny now, and he didn't seem so lucky. He shouldn't have hooked her. She wasn't the sort of catch one could take home and show off to people; she was the sort of catch that drags the angler off the end of the pier and pulls him out to sea before tearing him to pieces as he's drowning. He shouldn't have been fishing at all, not when he was so ill-equipped.

Thinking about it, it reminds me a bit of Towards the end of the Morning: not just the setting (media-land in the '60s) but also the style and characters.

Anyway, really enjoyed it, and finished it much too quickly.

Completed : 8-September-2015