Product Description

Prime Minister Edward Clare and his wife Adele Floret-Clare live at Number 10 Downing Street. PC Jack Sprat is the policeman who stands outside on the door. Five years ago, Edward Clare was voted into Number 10 after a landslide election result. But now, things are starting to go wrong. The love has gone. The people are turning. In short, it's a very real problem. Edward worries about this. All he wants is for the people of Clare's Britain to like him, and for them to be happy. He enlists the help of Jack Sprat and together they travel round the country incognito, ending up at Jack's childhood home. His mother Norma lives in Leicester, and her address is Number 10 too, but that's where the similarity ends...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128818 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
Each new Townsend novel is something of an event, although she is unlikely to achieve again the success her Adrian Mole books gleaned. Nevertheless, this is her most imaginative and entertaining outing in some time: what marks it out is clear change of pace, and despite the humour every page of the book speaks of a very personal involvement. Jack Spratt is a policeman on the door of Number 10 Downing Street. When the Prime Minister decides to travel incognito around the country to find out what people really think, he enlists Jack's aid. And the odyssey of the two very different men will change both their lives. The concept here is highly unusual, and Townsend brings to it all the energy and humour that have long been her hallmarks. Her fascination with the Prime Minister and his family (the thinly disguised character in Number Ten doesn't take too long to pin down) shines through on every page, and there's a sense that Townsend would dearly like life to imitate art in this fashion. It won't - but it's fun to follow this fascinating byway. (Kirkus UK)

Synopsis
Prime Minister Edward Clare and his wife Adele Floret-Clare live at Number 10 Downing Street. PC Jack Sprat is the policeman who stands outside on the door. Five years ago, Edward Clare was voted into Number 10 after a landslide election result. But now, things are starting to go wrong. The love has gone. The people are turning. In short, it's a very real problem. Edward worries about this. All he wants is for the people of Clare's Britain to like him, and for them to be happy. He enlists the help of Jack Sprat and together they travel round the country incognito, ending up at Jack's childhood home. His mother Norma lives in Leicester, and her address is Number 10 too, but that's where the similarity ends...

About the Author
Sue Townsend became Britain's bestselling author of the 1980s with her books The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 and The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole. She is the author of seven other novels, including The Queen And I, and her collected journalism, The Public Confessions Of A Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55 3/4), was published in 2001. She is well known as a playwright and lives in Leicester.

Customer Reviews

Interesting idea and an enjoyable read.....
Without giving away too much, I think that the idea of politicians developing more empathy with the people over whose lives they have power is am extremely important one. I'm not sure if Sue Townsend meant to make a statement about the detachment of politicians but irrespective of this the book is very enjoyable and pretty funny in parts too. Worth a read.

Number Ten, a very enjoyable book
I had never read and enjoyed a book before this one, I thought books were boring and a waste of time. This book has totally overturned my view. The basic storyline is that the prime minister of England believes he has lost touch with the general public. He has recently received a lot of criticism from journalists, the paper and the average person. His wife with her very Controversial personality has also been in the paper with her very notorious comments, e.g. 'moles should be buried in a ceremony because they were part of a human's body.' the prime minister decides that he and a policeman he got to due to the policeman's shifts on the door of number ten. They take a one-week trip around Britain, in disguise, to find the views of the average brit. He turns out dreading the thought of going back to number ten and queries whether to quit his role of the leader of Britain. You can find out whether he quits or not by reading the book.

Number Ten
After Adrian Mole of course when you pick up a book by Sue Townsend you expect a masterpiece, unfortunately in picking up Number Ten, you get nowhere near this sort of quality.

Basically the book just isn't funny. I'm not a fan of farce anyway but this one was really quite puerile and almost childish. "Oh what a wheeze, let's dress the Prime Minister as a woman and have him tottering on high heels." "Let's call the Home Secretary John Hay instead of Jack Straw, that'll be a giggle won't it." Sorry it just doesn't work.

Also you have to question Townsend's motives for the book. Some might say, quite deservingly, Tony Blair (or Edward Clare as he's known in the book, guffaw guffaw!) needs taking down a peg or two, but the author doesn't supply any alternatives or suggests how things can be done differently. Surely if you're going to offer a criticism, even if you're trying to do it in comedy, you also offer the other side of the coin, something Townsend just doesn't deliver.

The book does have one or two poignant moments which are quite nice, but these are so thin on the ground and the juvenile comedy laid on so thick that these are quite lost. Add together some of the clumsiest stereotypes ever and really all that was missing was a good old toilet gag. Not good.