Number 10: a novel - Softcover

Townsend, Sue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1569473757 ISBN 13: 9781569473757

Publisher: Soho Press, 2004

Synopsis

“Townsend has a rare gift ... wickedly funny.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“It’s not pretty, it’s not subtle, but it’s wickedly funny and skewers London’s prime-time players.”—Columbus Dispatch

Praise for Sue Townsend:

“It’s a good thing British subjects are no longer beheaded for treason, or Sue Townsend’s head would roll . . . outrageously cutting.”—Newsday

“[Townsend] is a national treasure.”—The New York Times Book Review

Edward Clare, PM of England, doesn’t know the price of a liter of milk. Worse, he’s admitted it on national television. The public that ushered him to a landslide election has turned against him.

Edward decides the only way to get closer to the men and women on the street is to travel the country dressed in drag. Leaving his high-powered, ambitious wife to attend to things in his absence, he sets out.

In this comic romp Sue Townsend sends up, roasts, hoists and generally petards the once and future prime ministers as only she can.

Sue Townsend is celebrated as the author of the bestselling

Adrian Mole series, read by millions, as well as the #1 British bestseller, The Queen and I. She lives in Leicester, England.

About this title

About the Author

Sue Townsend is celebrated as the author of the bestselling Adrian Mole series of books, read by millions around the world, as well as the #1 bestseller, The Queen and I. She is also a print and television journalist. She lives in Leicester, England.

From Publishers Weekly

In Townsend's latest British farce (after 1993's The Queen and I, which put the British royal family in public housing, to hilarious effect), the prime minister, known by much of his public as "that pratt Edward Clare," sets out to get in touch with the masses. Speaking at a press conference, Edward is caught unprepared by questions on the price of milk and the last time he took public transportation; the little fib he tells makes him a laughingstock. Edward decides a trip across the country will reacquaint him with "the concerns of the majority of British people," and under the watchful eye of Jack Sprat, an intellectual but street-savvy police officer, Edward begins his journey-as Edwina. (It's reasoned that his wife's clothes, and later his own enthusiastically chosen ensembles, will allow Edward to remain incognito.) Edward and Jack visit the grave of Edward's mother, and they endure the pain and humiliation of public transportation before hiring a Pakistani cabdriver, who takes them to visit a poverty-stricken single mother in Leeds. Here, Edward suffers something like a heart attack, which lands him in the hospital-as ill-run as public transportation-and then the psychiatric ward, where he is described as "pathologically unable to commit to an opinion for fear of displeasing the questioner." In the meantime, Edward's loopy wife, Adele, quits taking her medication and gets a nose job, and Jack's mother opens her humble home to a bevy of crack addicts. The three story lines are masterfully and hilariously interwoven, and the book's delightfully absurd characters (especially Edward, and Jack's mother, Norma) are unforgettable. This madcap romp through England is sure to delight Anglophiles and the many fans of Townsend's beloved Adrian Mole books.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1569473757
• ISBN 13: 9781569473757
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 277