Mail on Sunday
The wacky world of glossy magazines provides rich pickings for novelists, and the wildly successful Irish author Marian Keyes is the latest to have a Chanel and champagne moment. She chronicles the adventures of over-achieving, under-eating London sub-editor Lisa after she is given the unwelcome job of launching a glossy in Ireland with only a bunch of amateurs to help her.
Marooned on the other side of the Irish Sea far from the nearest Urban Outfitters is a nightmare at first, but being sent into the wilderness ultimately helps Lisa achieve personal growth beyond the sort she has removed monthly with hot wax. Hilarious though Keyes's observations of magazine life are, she is at her best when describing the emotional misadventures of Lisa's sweet-natured assistant editor Ashling, a woman cursed with a penchant for stand-up comedians and a beautiful but deceitful best friend, Clodagh. This heart-warming Irish stew of a love story, seasoned with sympathy and plenty of comic charm, is a must for Keyes fans.