excellent book, beautifully written a

was not sure about this book for the first few chapters. but as it turns out it's brilliant, funny and full of interesting characters
great story line.

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I’m disappointed

I loved Man At The Helm and had high hopes for this. It was as if it didn’t ever get going. Some of the chapters are just plain dull. Not for me. Bit miffed I used a credit on it now.

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Entertaining book superbly read.

I love Nina Stibbe's writing and this is another strong offering. Maybe not as hilarious as some of her earlier books and covers a much bigger time span but nonetheless sharp as a razor. Lovely reading by Jo Scanlon.

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A delicious story of a crab in a bucket

Some of us likely will sail through life never once having met a crab in our bucket. Others of us are not so fortunate.

Now a bunch of crabs in buckets are interesting. One of their number might see the need and desireability to escape the bucket, but sadly never figure it how. Why? Because there is always another crab in the bucket ready to pull them down. Crabs in buckets haven't and will never cotton on to the concept of teamwork. Just as one crab is looking up to see the stars - out will come a claw and bring the potential escapee promptly back to the bars. And in turn another crab will reach out a claw and pull others down. So it goes. No crab ever escapes buckets.

Sometimes it's a teacher, or a parent, or sibling who is the crab in the bucket of our lives. In the fictional world Nina Stibbe created for us it was a 'friend': Susan meet Norma.

While perhaps not Stibbe's 'best', I found it an entertaining read with droll asides and wonderful observations of the everyday. Central to my enjoyment of One Day I Shall Astonish the World was the study of the relationship between Susan and Norma.

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I wasn’t astonished

But maybe I was missing some irony? It’s a long story of fairly ordinary lives, the vagaries of friendship and how we might fail to seize the day. I’m a person who having started a book must read to the end, otherwise I might have given up at about chapter three. The narration I found slightly annoying, particularly the deep toned affectations for the sub characters.

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Cheery natter

Having dropped out of uni to marry Roy whose baby she was carrying, Susan is s a would-be academic . ‘One day I shall astonish the world’ is the aspirational motto of her local university where she ends up as the super efficient secretary to the Vice Chancellor. Despite her intelligent love of books (her references to which are one of the pleasures of the book), thirty years later she’s still married to irritating Roy with his penchant for iceberg lettuce whom she once loved, mollified by her beloved daughter Honey in whom Roy has never shown much interest.

Whilst working in a haberdashery as a young woman at the beginning of the story, she had become friends with Norma, the highly unconventional daughter of the shop owner. It’s a friendship which endures despite a multitude of knock-backs throughout those thirty years which end with the Covid Pandemic.

It’s an inconsequential, meandering rag bag of a story, (like a rag bag, with lovely bright bits) - but then so is real life and that is what One Day I will astonish the World is all about. How many readers / listeners will identify with Susan’s poignant musings on what might have been? Stibbe is so good at making the everyday monotony of ordinary life , with all its immediate up-to-the-minute references to brands and topical trends, lively, funny, at times heart-breaking and touching . It’s all monumentally ordinary but cheering and somehow uplifting. Susan’s observations on and insights into relationships, marriage, motherhood – and in particular on university life – are both acute and feisty and you can’t help liking her. The plot dips into silliness at times but overall the positivity and energy of This download will cheer you up - and what’s not to like about that.

The narrator does a great job and gets right into Susan’s skin.

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Do yourself a favour and buy this audiobook

Such a funny and well observed book. Joanna Scanlon’s performance is sublime. A complete joy from start to finish.

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Wonderful

Loved the story and the narration was excellent. On to the next one. Always enjoy.

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What’s not to like about a Nina Stibbe novel?

I love the naturalistic way she writes. The characters are so believable and often so very funny, I laughed out loud a few times!

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Extremely entertaining listen

I'm glad I decided to give this new novel a try, having loved Nina's previous books, in spite of some negative reviews.
The narration was great and the story funny, heart warming and gut wrenching in places.
I loved the ending! I encourage you to give it a try....

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