"The customs officials are suspicious: books written abroad are inherently dubious. So they decide to burn the typescript of Adam Fenwick-Symes's memoir. For Adam, no book to publish means no income - and no income means that marriage is out of the question. But when he wins a thousand pounds, Adam's life looks happier.

"A hilarious send-up of the 1920s society of Bright Young People, and an outrageous plot which flits from one extraordinary event to another [...] a wonderful, colourful and brilliantly perceptive comedy." It says here. I am slightly unnerved by the dedication to Diana Mosley.

I found it a very quick, surprisingly light read. Very funny in places but I started to find the vacuous toffs too, too tedious, darling, after a while. I was reminded of every single British aristocratic stereotype that has existed since (Tim Nice-But-Dim, every character Hugh Laurie ever played except for House). Maybe this book is the daddy of them all. Here's a sample bit of dialogue:
"We want dinner," said Adam, "and a room for the night."
"*Darling*, am I going to be seduced?"
"I'm afraid you are. Do you mind terribly?"
I'm sure I saw something like that described as British porn on Family Guy recently.

There's also a character called Fanny Throbbing, which my puerile side enjoyed.

This is a hardback, but quite a nice, light, compact edition. Ideal for a bookray.

Mailing order (subject to change):

stubee + KT-J, UK
shovelmonkey1, UK
Fluffy-Owl, UK
perfect-circle, UK
lakelady2282, Australia
Jubby, Australia
soffitta1, Portugal
ThursdayN, Sweden <---here

On its way to stubee and KT-J by second class post. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks shnedwards, we received this safely at the weekend!

I'm going to read this first so I'll be starting it once I've finished my current read.

This was a quick, light read and quite enjoyable, with a few parts where I laughed out loud. Most of the characters were completely over the top in their eccentricities and the book seemed to end quite abruptly I thought, but overall an enjoyable read sending up the British upper classes.

Thanks again shnedwards for sharing this. I've now passed this on to Stubee.

Thanks KT-J! I've got two books in front of this but should get started on it shortly.

EDIT: 8th September 2009 – I started this in my way to work this morning; it looks like it might be a very quick read as I got through 34 pages on my way to Manchester. I found the names of some of the characters in the first chapter quite interesting so I’ll see how it goes and update you all on my progress.

EDIT: 12th September 2009 - I finished this short novel this morning; I must say that I found all the BYP most annoying and tedious but as a whole the story was quite funny; the only character I liked was Colonel Blount his amnesia made the whole thing worthwhile. I'm not sure how this made it onto the 1001 list in the first place and I'm not entirely surprised by it's removal in the 2008 edition.

All in all a short enjoyable read but nothing mind blowing. I have shovelmonkey1's address so this will be sent to them sometime next week.

Thank you Shnedwards for another 1001 book (although I seem to be reading nothing but 1001 books at the moment it appears that I still have to read 20 a year until I die!)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off to Shovelmonkey1, hope you enjoy.

Received today via another one of my personal work couriers (Paul this time!). Will read and release to the next person on the list ASAP. Thanks for sending this to me Stubee.

I forgot i had this book (apologies everyone who is waiting for it), but once i found it again i actually enjoyed it. Easy to read once you get past the first twenty-odd pages. I think i might have appreciated this satire on Edwardian society if i knew a little more about it, but never mind. Quite looking forward to reading Brideshead revisited now that i've read this book.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Now en route to Fluffy-owl. sorry for the long wait. hope you enjoy this book!

Received today, thank you!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posting off to perfect-circle. Hope it travels well and arrives safely.

A humourous enough story, but I've read better ones set in/written in this era.

Posting off to the next in line soon.

Arrived safely today, thank you Fluffy-Owl & Shnedwards

Quick, humorous read that sends up the British upper classes of the Edwardian era quite well.

Received safely. Will read soon.

A wild romp through the selfish, self-absorbed twenties. Stylish and witty but I wouldn't call it hilarious. Will, however, definitely look out for more of his work. Will contact the next reader soon.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off to the delightful Jubby.

Received in the post this week. Thank you.

Now, I have to admit that I am far from being the most educated and qualified to make any worthy comments on this book.

I understand that this is a satire on life of upper class twenty-somethings, in a period we now identify as 'between the wars'.

Like Shnedwards, the dedication to Diana and Brian Guinness was a bit strange, but I remind myself as I type this that they probably were his contemporaries, and living in a very different political and social scene to the one I'm familiar with. But still, fascism?!

I'd heard of the the phrase 'Bright young people' but had not really understood the reference or origins, so appreciate now the satire (after further reading the novel and later wikipedia).

Like others have already journalled here, this book didn't seem all that impressive at first, but upon reflection I think this may be as result of our media preoccupation and saturation of our own current frivolous young things (was I the only one that pictured Agatha Runicible as Paris Hilton?), and our own societies acceptance of twenty-somethings (and even thirty-somethings!) still living off their parents, and not chasing those two must-haves 'work' and 'family', like those generations before have so diligently done.

I'm a bit miffed too that this one has been scrubbed from the '1001 list to read before you die' - as Stubee pointed out. I'll never be able to finish that challenge!

But, overall I am pleased that I have read this book, and think that it may be one I ponder for a little way longer. I fully agree with the senseless 'sport' of motor racing, and had a good laugh during those later chapters (here in Australia we have an annual race called Bathurst 1000, which is insane, and with the some rather colourful audience activities).

The biggest kick I got though from reading this book was after reading in Wikipedia and discovering that David Bowie's 'Aladdin love' is actually based on this book. And I thought I would never understand any of David Bowie's lyrics...!

Thank you for sharing this book with me.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posted on to Soffita1.

Thanks, arrived today.

I found it strange at first, but then really got into the satire and found myself flying through the last 100 pages. It is a glimpse at a lifestyle much at odds with the world around it, the Bright Young Things living the high life while the world prepares for war. The comic relief is provided by various characters, especially by the Colonel.

Have the next address, and hope to get this off before Easter.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to the next on the list, enjoy!

It arrived today, thank you very much! =)
I'll start asap.

This was an okey read, funny at times but a bit (as mentioned before) tedious after a while. I really don't understand why it's on the 1001.

Thank you all for sending it! =)

This copy has been domares to the 1001-library.

Thanks so much for your donation ThursdayN!

This book is now part of the 1001-library. If you want to take this book from the library but don't know how to proceed, please refer to the 1001-library bookshelf.

ThursdayN gave me the book.