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Brian Bilston

Diary of a Somebody Paperback – 9 Jan. 2020

by Brian Bilston (Author)

585 ratings

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Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2019, Diary of a Somebody is a unique mix of poetry and diary by the unofficial Poet Laureate of Twitter, the enigmatic Brian Bilston.

'If you like a) laughing or b) words which rhyme with each other, you will love Brian Bilston' - Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club

‘Nobody must find out about this unique gem, because I’m giving it to EVERYONE, and I want to appear clever and discerning.’ – Dawn French

It’s January 1st and Brian Bilston’s life needs to change. His ex-wife has taken up with a new man, a motivational speaker and marketing guru to boot; he seems to constantly disappoint his long-suffering son; and at work he is drowning in a sea of spreadsheets and management jargon.

Brian's resolution is to write a poem every day; poetry will be his salvation. But there is an obstacle to his happiness in the form of Toby Salt, his arch nemesis in the Poetry Group and rival suitor to Liz, Brian’s new poetic inspiration. When Toby goes missing, Brian is the number one suspect.

Part tender love story, part suburban murder mystery, part scathing description of a wasted life, and interspersed with some of the funniest poems about the mundane and the profound, Diary of a Somebody is a unique, original and hilarious novel.

‘Glorious. I will be astonished if I read a more original, more inventive or funnier novel this year.’ – Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Picador
Publication date

9 Jan. 2020
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

13 x 2.7 x 19.6 cm
ISBN-10

1529005566
ISBN-13

978-1529005561
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From the Publisher

Diary of a Somebody, Brian Bilston, poetry, humour, twitter

Product description

Review

Nobody must find out about this unique gem, because I’m giving it to EVERYONE -- Dawn French

Glorious. I will be astonished if I read a more original, more inventive or funnier novel this year. -- Adam Kay

Achingly funny. Without doubt it should win next year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for the best comic novel, even if my own novel is in contention as well -- Jonathan Coe

If you like a) laughing or b) words which rhyme with each other, you will love Brian Bilston -- Richard Osman

Not since Victoria Wood has a writer squeezed so much hilarity from a biscuit. ― The Oldie

How do I laugh at thee? Let me count the ways . . . If you like sub-Carry On puns, clever parodies of famous poems and Wittgensteinian meditations on language, you’ll love it ― Mail on Sunday

The midlife answer to Adrian Mole? It's a big comparison to make, in comic novel terms, but Brian Bilston - parodist and 'poet laureate of Twitter'- is worthy . . . Laugh. Cry. Cringe. ― Stella Magazine, Sunday Telegraph

He has a knack for playing with language but his poems are accessible, witty and touching . . . In fact I rather regretted reading it over just a couple of days - it would have been better to take longer and saver it. -- Kirsty McLuckie ― The Scotsman Magazine

A welcome reminder of the joy to be had when you put yourself in the hands of someone who knows their way round both a joke and a bittersweet narrative . . . Funny and ingenious ― The Times

In a similar way to Morrissey and John Cooper Clarke, [Bilston] has the ability to make the mundane both funny and beautiful – whether that's taking out the bins or procrastinating on Twitter . . . A must-read for anyone who is a fan of wordplay, puns, The Smiths and custard creams. -- Dominic Kearney ― Irish News

The English comic novel, whose death this year was announced prematurely, is actually alive, well and in the safe hands of Brian Bilston -- Jonathan Coe ― The Times

Highly original, genuinely funny and clever, with a gentle humanity in between the lines. Brian Bilston should be Poet Laureate -- John O'Farrell

Bilston is the greatest English anti-hero of our time. His poems have delighted people on Twitter for several years, and now he's treated us to this brilliant novel . . . This book has everything you want from a comic novel . . . Brian Bilston is real. And I love him ― Spectator

The pseudonymous Brian Bilston turns the base metal of comic verse into gold . . . Imagine a mash-up of John Cooper Clarke, Ed Reardon’s Week and James Joyce, and you’re about halfway there . . . Bilston is a magician with words . . . Read this novel in short bursts, pausing to savour its individual brilliancies ― Guardian

Brian Bilston is bringing poetry to the masses . . . topical, witty, thoughtful ― Irish Times

Brian Bilston is a laureate for our fractured times, a wordsmith who cares deeply about the impact his language makes as it dances before our eyes -- Ian McMillan

One of the funniest novels in years . . .It also has genuine heart - and scores of poems so witty and accomplished that, in the real world, their author would surely be as famous as, well . . . I predict that Brian Bilston will soon be ― Reader's Digest

Part John Cooper Clarke, part Frank Sidebottom . . . brilliant ― Esquire

Bilston is no stranger to crafting cleverly composed poetry ― Huffington Post

Word play, laugh-out-loud poems and the deft skewering of office life are part of the fun in this brilliant comic debut. -- Eithne Farry ― Sunday Express

In 1892, George and Weedon Grossmith published The Diary of a Nobody, now a classic of comic writing. In 1978, Christopher Matthew updated the idea. Now Brian Bilston brings us another Diary of a Somebody and it's as fun as its predecessors. -- William Hartston ― Daily Express

This fun, charming novel is a fine showcase for Bilston’s irrepressible creativity . . . It’s all done with wit, playfulness and a sense of amused wonder at the possibilities and idiosyncrasies of the English language, with the occasional groanworthy pun seeming like a price well worth paying. -- Alastair Mabbott ― Herald

Bilston has perfected his comic voice, which brings to mind a bitter man-child with spades of misanthropic charm and a dash of Alan Partridge-esque pedantry. This is a comic novel of the highest order. ― Literary Review

An original, imaginative and funny book. ― Daily Mirror

Part murder mystery, mainly great comic novel. ― "What We're Reading", i

Charming, funny and touching. -- Ian Rankin ― First Printing

The midlife answer to Adrian Mole? It’s a big comparison to make, in comic novel terms, but Brian Bilston is worthy. In Diary of a Somebody, Brian makes a New Year’s Resolution to write a poem a day for a year. Hilarious results ensue, as well as the disappearance of a poetry (and love) rival. Laugh. Cry. Cringe -- Stella Magazine ― Sunday Telegraph

Sparkling with wit, intelligence and humanity. -- Jonathan Coe ― First Printing

About the Author

Brian Bilston is clouded in the pipe smoke of mystery.

He has been described as the Banksy of poetry and Twitter’s unofficial Poet Laureate. With over 50,000 followers, numbering J. K. Rowling, Roger McGough and Frank Cottrell Boyce amongst many, many other luminaries, Brian has become truly beloved by the Twitter community. His first collection, You Took the Last Bus Home, was published by Unbound.

He won the Great British Write Off competition in 2015 – and was the Poet in Residence for the World Economic Forum in 2016. There have been features on him on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the BBC news website, the Irish Times, the Independent and the Smithsonian Magazine. Most of these features seem to have largely centred around his pipe.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; Main Market edition (9 Jan. 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1529005566
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529005561
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13 x 2.7 x 19.6 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 11,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 94 in Lawyers & Criminals Humour
- 242 in Words, Language & Grammar
- 1,729 in Humorous Fiction

Customer reviews:
585 ratings

About the author

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Brian Bilston

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Brian Bilston has been described as Twitter’s unofficial Poet Laureate. With more than 200,000 followers on social media, including J.K. Rowling, Roger McGough and Frank Cottrell Boyce, Brian has become truly beloved by the online community. He has published two collections of poetry, You Took the Last Bus Home (Unbound, 2016) and Alexa, what is there to know about love? (Picador, 2021), and his novel Diary of a Somebody (Picador, 2019) was shortlisted for the Costa first novel award. He has also published a collection of football poetry, 50 Ways to Score a Goal (Macmillan, 2021), and his acclaimed poem Refugees (Palazzo, 2019) has been made into an illustrated book for children.

Customer reviews

5 star		68%
4 star		19%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

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Em

⛅ Holiday ☔ Book ⚡ Alert!! ☀️

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 August 2019

Verified Purchase

This wonderful book by my only favourite poet Brian Bilston, is actually not entirely a poetry book at all which is what I love about it.
It's very funny. You should buy it and try it. You can come back and moan at me if you don't like it.

21 people found this helpful

Helpful

Great book, Kindle version reservations

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 August 2019

Verified Purchase

Loving most of the content, but it really is time that Kindles had a better approach to pictures, and that Kindle versions were checked before release. Unlike the font sizes that can change from tiny to huge, pictures are "one size fits all", except that it's usually too small. And one set of poems, that may be on a single page in the book, or a two page spread, with two columns (New Year Haiku Horoscopes, Wed Jan 31st) are a mess because the two columns idea is retained, but verses may be spread over two pages rather than just continuing in the same column. These would be better without the double columns. Other pictures, like the Acoustic Guitar (27 Jan) or Inbox (15 Jan) are close to unreadable. And of course, a poem presented as an image doesn't count as searchable text, so you can't search for "Acoustic Guitar"

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bobbie

the perfect accompaniment to lock-down

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 September 2020

Verified Purchase

The hero resolves to write a poem a day. His wife has left him for a more can-do fellow, his son has doubts about him, his cat does nothing but sit on him, he can’t get the hang of his jargon-ridden job or get around to reading any of his book group’s book choices, and a pretentious member of his poetry group has thousands of Twitter followers and a best-selling anthology. A bit patchy and padded, but this book is the perfect accompaniment to lock-down. I guarantee it will make you feel okay about lolling about, getting nothing much done, while the world goes slowly to hell in a hand-basket. There’s a mystery with a nice resolution, a romance of sorts, and a happy ending. And plenty of humour, poetic parody and wordplay. My first laugh-out-loud was, ‘Forgive me, Father, for I have wind.’ The author has 76.7K Twitter followers and I am now one of them.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Dr. Rob

A Diary of Somebody that I used to read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 January 2021

Verified Purchase

Now and then I think of how to write a review
Of all the poetic words I read this week
Told myself this book was right for me
And Brian Bilston would be good company
And it was good and it's the laughs I still remember
You can get addicted to a certain kind of writing
Regretting coming to the end, always the end
Some books just do not not make sense
But maybe they would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was sad when this was over
But Brian didn't cut me off
Make out like poetry never happened and words were nothing
And I don't even read for love
I never felt like a stranger when turning the page
Feeling angst when Toby Salt bought you low
Enjoying your son collecting your records
And then you romantically changed your future
And you love of Liz just pulled you though
Now it's just a diary of a somebody that I used to read
Now it's just a diary of a somebody that I used to read
Now it's just a diary of a somebody that I used to read
Now it's just a diary of a somebody that I used to read

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

A delightful tale from Twitter's poet laureate

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 March 2020

Verified Purchase

If you want a bit of light hearted relief from the world around you, then Brian Bilston is your man. 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.

In Diary of a Somebody, our hero Brian Bilston (how autobiographical this fictional alter ego is we may never know!) makes a resolution to write a poem a day in his diary. Needless to say, like almost all new year's resolutions, he fails fairly quickly. Even so, many of the chapters start with poems, some of which (the real) Brian Bilston has previously shared on Twitter. Through the year, (the fictional) Brian documents his frustrating and pointless job, the rise of his poetry club nemesis Toby Salt, his relationship with his son Dylan (along with his terrible football team) and his would-be relationship with poetry club newbie Liz. When Toby Salt goes missing, suspicion falls on Brian and so the story becomes a mystery.

It's warm, funny and a total delight.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Janet B

Brilliant! Superb! Genius!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2019

Verified Purchase

Absolute genius! The funniest, cleverest book I 've ever read which has become one of my all- time favourites. Had the privilege of seeing B B at a poetry reading in Corbridge - he had us all in stitches and now I can re-read Diary of A Somebody and hear his delivery which brings his Poetry even more to life. Please, please, please write more novels with your poetry Mr Bilston!

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

John Bulman

A quirky blend of poetry, novel and diary all in one!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 October 2019

Verified Purchase

I love Brian Bilston's poems and his first book "you took the last bus home" is also a must read.

I must admit this started a little slowly (might have just been my frame of mind!) But from half way on I couldn't wait to read on. I read the last quarter in one go.

This is a strange blend of poetry and a story in the form of a diary. I'm still not sure if I want to punch, shake or hug Brian (the character not the author!) It works though and there are a lot of laugh out loud moments along with a bit of drama and some frustrations along the way.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Indigo Spike

Every Day is like .... Punday

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 July 2019

Verified Purchase

I was looking forward to this book so much, and found it so compelling (with liberal splatterings of guffaw-out-loud) that I devoured it in a few sittings the first time, and then felt so bereft that I keep having to dip back into it. Every time I find something new that resonates or makes me laugh. I must sheepishly confess that I even had to buy the Audible book with Ben Miller as well to so I could experience it all over again – like one of those old vinyl comedy records that never gets tired. Brian has such a knack of observing and capturing and magnifying the absurdities of life and language and people – things that you never realized other people noticed or found ridiculous too, or never found an adequate way to express. He’s like a poetic semi-grown-up Bridget Jones/Adrian Mole hybrid with infusions of Magnus Mills and Dan Rhodes and Rachel Joyce and Jonas Jonasson – but so much more than that too. What makes it particularly distinctive are the very clever literary, musical and cultural references, which will make readers “in the know” smile, but are still funny enough for lesser-informed folk like me! This deserves to become a classic, not just in the genre “poetic novel” or comedy, but in 21st century fiction full stop. I hope there will be more.

3 people found this helpful

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