Sarf London...

First of all I have to admit that I've met Debi Alper a couple of times as she is a good friend of Cailleach and I read her book with interest. This book is fast, funny, tragic, compassionate and rude and I really enjoyed reading it. Set in and around an area of South East London I know well there is lots of local colour. She's a great storyteller, but for me its in her depiction of the characters that Debi really excels, the central character, Jenny, is funny, loyal, sexy, troubled and flawed, as she attempts to come to terms with the damage inflicted on her during her childhood. But Jenny has found refuge and a new family amongst her diverse and compassionate fellow inhabitants of the Nirvana Housing Co-op. The bizarre job interview at the BBC where Jenny comes face to face with Stanley, who she previously knew as "Stapled Stan", is hilarious and very rude, but I was also deeply moved as Jenny and her friends are devastated as they try to help Stanley. As you can only buy this second hand from Amazon it seems that this is yet another book that seems to be out of print and shouldn't be, Kerry Katona and her ilk have a lot to answer for.