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History

The hilarious, unmissable novel from the brilliant Miles Jupp

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About this listen

The brilliant debut novel from acclaimed comedian, writer and presenter Miles Jupp.

Clive Hapgood is feeling stuck. The private school he teaches at is consuming his life, no thanks to wretched headteacher Julian Crouch. The gentle country life Clive envisaged has stifled him and left his marriage on the brink. What he needs is a holiday - something to remind him and Helen what life used to be like. But when things don't go to plan, and an incident at school begins to weigh heavy on his head, Clive's life starts to unravel in front of him. Has he got it in him to turn things around, whatever the cost? After all, it's his own time he's wasting....

For fans of Jonathan Coe, Mark Watson, Michael Frayn and David Nicholls.

©2021 Miles Jupp (P)2021 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Comedy Funny Witty Heartfelt Hilarious History

Critic reviews

"The funniest man in Britain has written a wonderful novel. Rejoice!" (Richard Osman)
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Aspects of ths book were good -the narration and some of the comedic scenes. However, the main character was annoying such that i found it difficult to care about him and I found the other characters lacking in depth or believability Worth a listen but not ss good as his autobiographical Fibber in the Heat as this book seemed to me Jupp attempt to get revenge againat his own privleged schooling.

fibber in the school

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I find Miles Jupp amusing on tv and radio but unfortunately didn’t enjoy this. It didn’t make me smile and I found the story uninteresting.

Not what I expected

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I should begin by admitting that I don’t read / listen to a great deal of fiction, most of my library is filled with non-fiction. However, I fancied a change and, having very quickly re-read Hitchhikers Guide…, I browsed Audible for highly rated fiction books to see what would come up and decided to give this a shot.

Well, to borrow a line from the book, which won’t act as a spoiler in itself, “…a small village with small problems”.
That could be the entire synopsis of this title.

It’s well written, it’s descriptive enough to paint a picture of every scene and character without being laboured and Miles, narrating it himself does a good enough job of bringing the cast to life, bar a couple of occasions where back-and-forth conversations can get muddled as his tone remains the same for both characters.

The main issue for me is that there wasn’t really much of a story there. I mean, not every book needs to run like a Michael Bay, Hollywood blockbuster, we don’t need a 747 crashing through the village to make it exciting, nor does there need to be a body found on the moors.
That said, I was hoping for a little more than seven hours of Miles talking through every day issues of small village life.

If twee is your thing, maybe you’re a fan of The Archers, for example then you’ll probably find this quite charming and there’s nothing wrong with that.
For others I would suggest that you may find it a little… “meh”

A small town with small problems… and that’s it

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As a man I can say we swallow down emotion far too much and when it does come out it's not really understood. We get scared and sad and lonely but struggle sometimes to talk about it and it can come out in a different way....thats why male suicide is 3 or 4 times more than women and why homelessness is well over double that of women.
The end felt like it should be the middle of the book. I could chop out the holiday section of the book and put another few chapters on the end. Feels like a second book in the making.
I nearly wept several times during the book but I was surprised when the book ended...I wish I could give away the ending so I could explain why I was frustrated. Just to say if you know several men in a marriage I guarantee you will know this story. But I dont want to be one of those people who ruin books.

This book isnt for everyone but will connect to a big chunk of the population.
it's not laugh out loud hilarious but does have funny bits. Book isnt perfect but I quite liked it.

finished too early!

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some amusing situations but not funny. sad end. sad people one two thre four

I was expecting funny.

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