Man at the Helm: The hilarious debut novel from one of Britain’s wittiest writers (The Lizzie Vogel Series, 1) - Softcover

Stibbe, Nina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241967805 ISBN 13: 9780241967805

Publisher: Penguin, 2015

Synopsis

Man at the Helm

About this title

Review:

I can't remember a book that made me laugh more . . . Man at the Helm is a winner - it even trumps Love, Nina (Observer)

A wicked anatomising of a dysfunctional family . . . Buoyantly comic: farcical yet tender, rude with a forgiving sweetness (Spectator)

Read it and be charmed. Just the right mixture of childhood innocence and incredulity for the necessary deadpan delivery of Stibbe's particular brand of comedy (Independent)

All hail a book that's funny! (Barbara Trapido)

[A] joyous read, full of wit and charm . . . I am already longing for Nina Stibbe's next book (Express)

A beguilingly comic blend of naivety and precociousness (Sunday Times)

Within a few pages I was completely caught up in the lives of Lizzie and her family . . . I couldn't have loved it more (Lisa Jewell)

Fantastic. Comical, moving and brilliantly evocative of British childhood (Glamour)

This book is very, very funny. Stibbe has a fine eye for absurdity, and her writing has an unforced charm. [And] there is real darkness here, which makes the humour shimmer all the more (Independent on Sunday)

Lizzie's voice is convincingly childlike but also confidently witty . . . What is most moving here - and what makes the book most similar to Love, Nina - is its celebration of the happiness possible within the family. Stibbe's feat is to remain unsentimentally barbed while subtly and triumphantly demonstrating the value of the kind of understated love found within the strangest and least obviously functional families (Telegraph)

From the Back Cover:

'A beguilingly comic blend of naivety and precociousness' Sunday Times
When their parents split up nine-year-old Lizzie Vogel, her sister and brother move with their mother to a slightly hostile village in the English countryside. Their mother immediately takes to drinking and compulsive playwriting - none of which impresses villagers already deeply suspicious of an attractive divorcée. Desperate to fit in, Lizzie and her sister hatch a plan: secretly invite any suitable (and even unsuitable) men to meet (and hopefully marry) their mother . . .

'A comedy classic. If you loved I Capture the Castle you will love this. I laughed hard, page after page' The Times

'A joyous read, full of wit and charm . . . a glorious cast of characters' Sunday Express

'I couldn't have loved it more' Lisa Jewell

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0241967805
• ISBN 13: 9780241967805
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320