Diary of a Somebody

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He was a little slash lot self-absorbed (to the point of forgetting his young son's birthday - who would do that), never had a drivers license, rightfully got made redundant from a job where he did nothing and the only thing he seemed to strive for was to appear smarter than he actually was. It's a big comparison to make, in comic novel terms, but Brian Bilston - parodist and 'poet laureate of Twitter'- is worthy .

However, by the middle of the book the too-clever-by-half poems and incessant painting of Brian as a hapless Some mother's do 'ave 'em sad-sack began to pall.You probably get the picture that Brian makes a few mistakes during the course of the book, but it's impossible to do anything but like him. Otherwise known as the poet laureate of Twitter, he has an uncanny knack of seeing the absurdity in everyday life and then turning it into rhyme. A new collection, Days Like These, which features a poem for every day of the year, published in October 2022.

They're all worthy of a mention, although I thought the excel spreadsheet one was particularly clever and I did enjoy singing My Favourite Words to the tune of My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music! The book picked up in excitement in the ninth month, but it was too late, and even though the book became more exciting, the main character never improved quite enough for you to feel too happy about any good coming his way. So here comes Brian Bilston, using his gift of turning the mundane, the everyday into a diary entry and/or a poem, using the power of wit and the ability to mine the language for puns and other delights. But there is an obstacle in the form of Toby Salt, his arch nemesis at Poetry Club and rival suitor to Liz, Brian’s new poetic inspiration. Read this novel in short bursts, pausing to savour its individual brilliancies * Guardian * Bilston is the greatest English anti-hero of our time.Diary of a Somebody keeps up a stream of witticisms that is admirable and relentless and, in the end, a little bit tiresome. If you have a friend who's brilliant at telling jokes but who spends all evening relentlessly bombarding you with punchlines you'll know what I mean. Suffice to say that there are certain gaps in the diary, literally torn out pages, and that the mystery is resolved with the means of a poem.