The characters in this book were so diverse and all interesting in their own way The story is based in Brighton in the 1960’s. I loved Elfrida particularly and could imagine her with the Sarsons bottle in the cupboard behind the sugar. The story goes backwards and forwards between the characters and as you carry on reading how they interwine. They are all leading lives that they perhaps would or should change but for whatever reason they do not. Elfrida particularly was a novelist but had not written a book for 10 years having had writer’s block probably due to her alcohol intake but decided she would start again. She was forever creating titles for the books but never got any further. The book is based around the making of a movie and the actors in the film have their own stories. I did not exactly enjoy the book although some of the characters I enjoyed

Very disappointed by William Boyd on this one. It's got a hackneyed, tired, plot line with cut-out characters. Each has a "point of interest" but each is barely 2-dimensional. It feels as if he and his editor stitched together 3 half-written feeble short stories. And it's so dated! One of his characters plans to write about Virginia Woolf. She's told that no one is interested in Woolf any more (which should be true!). Mr Boyd should have reminded himself of that before filling so much of this "novella" with uninteresting (and possibly invented)"factoids" about VW. What we didn't need: another dull book about the staid British upper-middle class culture-class.

Really can’t understand the positive reviews, are they impartial? I guess not. This book went nowhere, had no high point, and a poor final third. Really disappointing. If only reviewers read the book right through