First of all, don’t be put off my by the fact that Starter For Ten features in the Richard and Judy summer book club. Now I might be a bit of a snob about these things, but featuring on a not-particularly intellectually demanding afternoon talk programme does not put a book high on my agenda.
But this is quite a funny read – and takes me back to the early novels of David Lodge. Brian Jackson is spending his first year at his unnamed new university where he’s studying “Eng-Lit”. First task is to get into the University Challenge team, where he can try to woo the beautiful Alice.
This is a pretty amusing tale of university, that’s helpfully set about three years before I did the same, thus making it all the more accurate for me. Sometimes the naiivity does seem a little over-egged, but there are laugh-out-loud moments, and it’s a thoroughly good read. It also really doesn’t end up how you expect it to end, but I’ll say no more.