Top

Camberwell Beauty

On sale

14th July 2005

Price: £9.99

Select a format

Selected: Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780751530995

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

‘Viciously funny’ Daily Mail

Welcome to one of the nicest streets in one of London’s vilest boroughs: a determined middle-class oasis of skips and bay trees, where Volvos sniff each others’ bumpers and men called Giles live with women called Samantha.

This is a satellite-dish-free zone of tall houses, standing shoulder to shoulder with big front doors, five floors apiece. Come inside, shut the door and smell the coffee: you could almost be in Kensington. This is where the actors, writers and media types live, where small children wearing smart uniforms and shoes in the shape of lightbulbs get ferried every day to schools that are not local.

Some people are luckier than others; fortune smiles on some and gobs on the rest. Jo Metcalf (no. 95) smokes and spies on the smug Cunninghams down the street as they play their bile-inducing game of happy families. Why is the grass greener on the other side of the fence? But happiness is a fragile thing and hairline cracks in a perfect world can become craters of misery . . .

Full of comic insight and realistic observation of contemporary British life, this is the debut novel from Sunday Times bestseller Jenny Eclair.
_____________________

PRAISE FOR JENNY ECLAIR:


‘Wonderfully written, insightful and riveting’ Daily Mail

‘Both heart-rending and compelling’ Clare Mackintosh

‘SO immersive, atmospheric and compelling’ Marian Keyes

‘Witty, moving, dark and absorbing’ Jo Brand

‘An elegant, gripping and mesmeric read’ Helen Lederer

‘An absolute page-turner of a story’ Judy Finnigan

‘Compelling, compassionate and keenly observed’ Independent
___________

Don’t miss the unforgettable new novel from Jenny Eclair – INHERITANCE is out now

Reviews

Guardian
This comedienne has always been a novelist-in-waiting . . . Eclair's modern cautionary tale has the same bittersweet wit that shapes her stand-up set, but there's nothing remotely funny about its dark conclusion
The Times
Irreverant observations are thrown down gauntlet-like as [Eclair] rages on to the next gag
Daily Mail
Viciously funny and very well written