Starter for ten - David Nicholls

[marty21]

I'm reading this at the moment, and i have to say i'm really enjoying it, if you were at college in the 80s, it is spot on. I keep reading passages and smiling to myself, having been in similar situations when i was at college. It's the book i would love to have written if i had ever got it together to write a book

I so wanted to be on university challenge, but swansea were only on it for 1 year when i was there, and i was on a year abroad when it happened.

I saw the tape, and a couple of mates made the team, they were hammered by a oxbridge type team, one of the swansea lot got pished during the recording, and kept pressing the buzzer, just so the announcer would say

"clash....swansea" he was a clash nut and everyone called him clash, can't remember what his real name was....

 

[tangerinedream]

I knew someone with the second name Nicholls once, he was a bit odd. He claimed not to be able to say 'squirral' pronouncing it instead 'shrivel' - then one day, he said 'squirral' and told us - "I was only pretending all along". Wierd.

 

[pilchardman]

then one day, he said 'squirral' and told us - I was only pretending.

Oh that old joke.

I'm surprised you fell for it.




...

 

[tangerinedream]

Oh that old joke.

I'm surprised you fell for it.




...

months he kept it up for, months!

 

[shandy]

I knew someone with the second name Nicholls once, he was a bit odd.

Was it Paul Nicholls?

 

[Maidmarian]

He claimed not to be able to say 'squirral' pronouncing it instead 'shrivel' -

Whilst we all KNOW that the correct mispronunciation is, in fact "skrirrel" --------- I`m amazed you fell for it !

 

[tangerinedream]

Was it Paul Nicholls?

Er, I could tell you that I knew someone who knew Paul Nichols and said he was a bit of an arrogant sort, and I wouldn't be lying.

 

[marty21]

i had a confusing conversation with my neighbour last year, he kept going on about skirls or something, and how they were pests

 

[tangerinedream]

Whilst we all KNOW that the correct mispronunciation is, in fact "skrirrel" --------- I`m amazed you fell for it !

Is this some kind of meta-joke-within-a-joke thing? I'm confused and I'm going to bed. No sane person pretends they can't say squirral for months on end. Surely?

 

[shandy]

Er, I could tell you that I knew someone who knew Paul Nichols and said he was a bit of an arrogant sort, and I wouldn't be lying.

I could well imagine. Fame, fame, fatal fame, it plays hideous tricks on the brain.

 

[Maidmarian]

i had a confusing conversation with my neighbour last year, he kept going on about skirls or something, and how they were pests

Is this an overspill from the Bagpipes thread, or what ??

 

[tangerinedream]

i had a confusing conversation with my neighbour last year, he kept going on about skirls or something, and how they were pests

oh, skirls are bloody nightmares, once you've got skirls you can't shift 'em

 

[marty21]

Is this an overspill from the Bagpipes thread, or what ??

not sure i'd have to read the bagpipes thread to see

 

[tangerinedream]

I could well imagine. Fame, fame, fatal fame, it plays hideous tricks on the brain. I suppose he looks a tad arrogant with his rooftop pose...

I think you'll find that Paul Nicholls has far more dastardly things on his mind than fame, fame, fame. Nuff said.

 

[maldwyn]

Loved it.

The “talking book” version is read by David Tennant
with questions by Bamber Gascoigne.

 

[Echo Beach]

I loved the book. One of the very few to get unanimous approval at my book group

 

[parallelepipete]

not sure i'd have to read the bagpipes thread to see

You'd better read it, it's MY thread and it's brilliant

 

[parallelepipete]

I loved the book. One of the very few to get unanimous approval at my book group

I loved it too. I bought it at Fort William station to read on the way back home after doing the West Highland Way.

By the third page I was sniggering, and by the fifth or sixth I was embarrassing my wife and parents by trying to read passages to them to show them how funny it was, except that I couldn't get more than ten words out because I was laughing so much. That dance-floor scene!

It was the best bit of fiction I'd read in ages. You can definitely feel the influence of his writing for TV in the short and punchy descriptions, passages in present tense etc., but brilliant!

 

[Looby]

I loved it too, I always wanted to be on University Challenge (I also wanted to be on the Cambridge team in the boat race, but I'm a girl and I don't row).

Found it very funny and although I was teeny weeny in the 80s it seemed pretty accurate from what the oldies tell me.

 

[KellyDJ]

I loved this too. I read it when it first came out last year or the year before.

 

[Ground Elder]

Hmm, it was OK I suppose, an easy enough read before bed. The anachronisms started to piss me off - skunk in the mid 80s, wrong year for Do They know it's Christmas and so on.