PublishedViking, November 2014 |
ISBN9780670922819 |
FormatSoftcover, 256 pages |
Dimensions23.4cm × 15.3cm |
Barbara Parker is Miss Blackpool of 1964, but she doesn't want to be a beauty queen. She wants to make people laugh, like her heroine Lucille Ball. So she leaves Blackpool and her family behind, takes herself off to London, and gets a job behind the cosmetics counter of a Kensington department store, while trying to work out how she can get herself noticed.
A chance meeting with an agent results in a new name and an audition for a new BBC comedy series. Sophie Straw's time has come. Funny Girl is the story of a television programme, and the people responsible for it: the writers, Tony and Bill, friends since national service and comedy obsessives; producer Dennis, Oxbridge educated, clever, mild and devoted to his team in general and Sophie in particular; and Sophie's good-enough looking co-star Clive, who feels that he's destined for better things, despite the apparently inexhaustible fringe benefits that television stardom offers. As the 1960s progress, and the British people fall in love with Sophie's sitcom, the pleasures of teamwork begin to wane: nothing can stay good forever, and the mess of real life will always intrude. Nick Hornby's new novel, his first since Juliet, Naked, is about work, popular culture, youth and old age, fame, class and collaboration. It offers a captivating portrait of youthful exuberance and creativity at a time when Britain itself was experiencing one of its most enduring creative bursts.
Barbara is an award-winning bookseller who has a special interest in fiction, especially Australian fiction and children’s books for all ages.
Funny Girl is Nick's seventh novel and the first in Juliet, Naked which was published in 2009. Barbara Parker is crowned Miss Blackpool on 1964 but she doesn't want to be a beauty queen, Barbara wants to make people laugh. She moves to London and after some fill in jobs she changes her name to Sophie Straw , gets a lucky break and lands a part in a new TV sitcom Funny Girl. There are a mixed bag of people contributing to the series. Tony and Bill the writers, Oxford educated Dennis, the producer and Sophie's co-star Clive all add to the interesting mix contributing to each episode. The highs and lows of the TV industry and popular culture are told in a most humorous and enlightening way.
