Book info

• Title Diary of a Somebody
• Author Brian Bilston
• Year 2019
• Genre Humour

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.

Thoughts

It’s been well documented on this site that I’m not a huge poetry lover but I do like something accessible such as this novel - a story in the form of a diary, where the protagonist intends to write a poem a day but gets distracted many times along the way by the trials and tribulations of life. It’s witty and full of wordplay, and reminded me of a grown up Adrian Mole at times. Very good.

Rating: 3 / 5