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A satirical, tragicomic story about a man on the edge from actor and comedian Miles Jupp. For readers of Jonathan Coe, Mark Watson, Michael Frayn and David Nicholls.
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…
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…
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Reviews
Well-observed . . . [Jupp] has fun skewering the absurdities of public-school life
Very funny
Very funny set pieces and one-liners
A sensitive and insightful depiction of a midlife crisis, while simultaneously extracting every last ounce of comedy and farce from Clive's situation . . . Jupp writes in the wonderfully wry, deadpan style comic style that his fans will recognise from his TV and radio appearances.
Jupp's witty novel has some telling things to say about British hypocrisy and the culture at independent schools, where students "generally leave with an innate capacity to bedishonest".