Is there anything better to sink into than a good comic novel? Is there anything harder to pull off? They look easy, but how many good ones have you read this year? Any year? This debut novel by and about Brian Bilston, the purveyor of supremely self-aware parody poems, is a welcome reminder of the joy to be had when you put yourself in the hands of someone who knows their way round both a joke and a bittersweet narrative. What do you think the turning point is for Brian? Do you think he now considers himself to be ‘a somebody’?

Diary of a Somebody | christophermatthew Diary of a Somebody | christophermatthew

The brilliant thing about this whole structure is the way the banalities of life are turned into rhyming ditties and entries in the diary which are so wonderful to read. Most people's diaries would be quite boring I suspect, but Brian's life is just so fraught with calamity and misunderstanding that the banal becomes interesting, even though it's not dramatic. He just ploughs on hoping for the best.Brian sometimes reminded me very much of Mark from peep show who I adore and they mentioned one of my fave films Donnie darko If you like a) laughing or b) words which rhyme with each other, you will love Brian Bilston' - Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club poetry club mediocrity, emphasised when one of members becomes a published phenomenon, then disappears and our protagonist becomes murder suspect

Diary Of A Somebody: 3 star review by Alex McCord Diary Of A Somebody: 3 star review by Alex McCord

There are the events of 1966, detailed in Joe Orton's diaries on which the play based, Lahr catching Orton's delight in transgression and his longtime boyfriend, Kenneth Halliwell's, plunge into depression. There's the 1989 original production of the play, when many of Orton's transgressions had been legalised, but prevailing attitudes were probably best summed up by Tom Robinson's line in 'Glad To Be Gay' - "The buggers are legal now, what more are they after?" And then 2022, when the moral panics that the letters LGBT excite in the media have tilted firmly to the T. with LGB largely met with a shrug of the shoulders if they warrant any reaction at all. Imagine a mash-up of John Cooper Clarke, Ed Reardon’s Week and James Joyce, and you’re about halfway there. He's a bit of a likeable fool. I particularly loved how Brian would enter a bookshop for one particular book and just had to buy a few more to keep it company. I'm sure that resonates with every book lover. Staged for the first time in 35 years, Diary of a Somebody is a deep dive into the mind of one of the most witty, rebellious, and acclaimed artists of his generation. Introducing George Kemp (Bridgerton, Netflix; Call My Agent, Netflix; The Trial of Christine Keeler, BBC) as notorious artist and playwright Joe Orton, Diary of a Somebody will see Toby Osmond (Game of Thrones, HBO; Henry VIII and His Six Wives, BBC; Dead Souls, Monkhead Theatre) take to the stage as his mentor and partner, the actor and writer Kenneth Halliwell.Our eponymous hero, Brian Bilston, starts the year with the intention of writing a poem a day. Whilst that goes by the wayside some days, we are still treated to many poems of the very clever and mostly rhyming variety that I love. The poems form the first part of the entries in Brian's diary over the course of a year of numerous ups and downs for him. Matthew has two sons and a step-daughter and lives in London and Suffolk with his wife. [ citation needed] Bibliography [ edit ] Glorious. I will be astonished if I read a more original, more inventive or funnier novel this year.