Product Description

No London neighbourhood more resembles the restless downstream tide of the Thames than the ragged square mile of Soho, and into this human rabbit warren one evening slips Alex Singer, a student from Leeds in pursuit of his errant girlfriend. Twenty-four hours, three deaths, one fire and one mugging later, seduced, traduced and befriended, Alex is on his way to the Soho Ball. In this fast, funny and superbly crafted novel, Keith Waterhouse draws a vibrant portrait of London's liveliest quarter past and present and of its eccentric inhabitants.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #527171 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 245 pages

Review
"1 'Quite easily the wittiest and best chronicler of contemporary life' The Sunday Telegraph 2 'You stay gripped from the opening paragraph... It crackles with insight about the nature of sexual obsession' Val Hennessy in the Daily Mail 3 'He can be angrily oratorical, bluntly rude, soberly informative, boozily clownish, but cannot stop being very, very funny' Alan Brien in The Sunday Times 4 'A treat for sore brains' Patrick Skene Catling in The Spectator

An intimate insider's portrait of Soho which could only come from Waterhouse, creator of Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell. The novel opens with Christine Yardley peeling off her rubber dress, make-up and nail extensions and washing away all traces of body perfume before donning male deodorant, St Michael underpants and a grey business suit to leave weekend life in Soho for weekdays as Christopher Yardley, accountant, who lives with his mum in Ruislip. Yardley fails to be an archetypal Soho persona only because the curious characters who populate this engaging story defy all comparison. There's TV personality Brendan Barton, whose concern is not that the world knows of his S&M proclivities but that it shouldn't get about that he pays over the going rate for 'correctional services'; Ellis Hugo Bell, would-be movie mogul desperate for 400; and 'Else', former pretty young thing now Soho fixture, leaving her incontinent trail on bar stools throughout the 'illegitimate square mile'. And Waterhouse knows his Soho drinking dens, as well as its history, cleverly woven into the spiel of a scuttling tour guide. Into the story drops Alex Singer. Fresh from Media Studies at uni, chin-beard newly-shaved off because girlfriend Selby doesn't like it - or didn't, before she walked out on him - he's hitched from Leeds to track her down. The North-South divide is made manifest from the moment Alex confronts the apparent non-existence of Soho on maps and London underground diagrams. Unwittingly yet seemingly inevitably, he becomes a key player in various operations - the search for a missing plagiarised manuscript, a rookie journalist's trawl for news, a fading actress's quest for today's sexual conquest, a porn-shop owner's insurance fraud and, ultimately, the hunt for a murderer - all of which are played out against the background of a two-day succession of pub crawls, including a final fling by a deceased news vendor. Such unlikely details become somehow believable in this vibrant, funny portrayal of a bizarre community. (Kirkus UK)

Synopsis
No London neighbourhood more resembles the restless downstream tide of the Thames than the ragged square mile of Soho, and into this human rabbit warren one evening slips Alex Singer, a student from Leeds in pursuit of his errant girlfriend. Twenty-four hours, three deaths, one fire and one mugging later, seduced, traduced and befriended, Alex is on his way to the Soho Ball. In this fast, funny and superbly crafted novel, Keith Waterhouse draws a vibrant portrait of London's liveliest quarter past and present and of its eccentric inhabitants.

About the Author
In a long and highly successful career, Keith Waterhouse has published thirteen novels, including Billy Liar (which has been filmed and staged) and Our Song (also staged), seven non-fiction books and seven collections of journalism. He has written widely for television, cinema and the theatre, including the highly successful play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell, and writes an award-winning column for the Daily Mail. He has also published two acclaimed memoirs, City Lights and Streets Ahead.

Customer Reviews

Deeply disappointing
Sadly, I bought this on trust, since I think the two Billy Liar novels are comic masterpieces, and 'Maggie Muggins' is both funny and oddly moving.
This, unfortunately, is lazy, complacent writing, with a smugly knowing insider's tone about Soho. The attempts at phonetic transcription of various accents are as crass as the leaden, creaking plot. Deeply, deeply disappointing for anyone who has read and re-read the Billy Liar novels for guaranteed therapeutic laughs at every re-reading. If you've loved his other work, avoid this one.

A book with long lasting impressions
Soho takes quite a while to get going and I found difficult to read in the first ten pages or so as a young bloke from Leeds goes searching for his long lost girlfriend in Soho and ends up travelling through innumerable pubs in his search.

He meets many lively characters and has several incidents. The story heats up as he takes away from the original aim of the visit and there turn out to be quite a few interesting sub-plots.

The final 100 pages or so were easy to read and I was gripped finding out what would happen to the bloke although there was always the suspicion that the original aim would come again as it did.

The story has several different themes involving an outsider moving to and visiting central London, how people deal with strangers and the search for long lost friends.

Utterly hilarious
..never read another Waterhouse novel, but I must say that if this is mediocre compared to the rest, then roll on the rest. With one minor quibble I thought this was one of the funniest books I've read in a long time and the growing parade of characters with their frequent reappearances just added to the hilarity. I especially loved the corpse's progress as he is taken from one pub to another ("It's what he would have wanted") and the frequency with which all the characters are banned from said pubs. My only quibble was the murder, which I thought sounded a wrong note, but otherwise I can not wait to read more Waterhouse.