HOW TO BE FAMOUS

Fearless, open, honest and incredibly funny especially about bad sex, the novel is set in 1995. 'I'm Johanna Morrigan. It's 1995. I'm nineteen and I live in the epicentre of Britpop. Park life! My unrequited love, John Kite, is busy with a Number One album, world-tour, drugs, and a nervous breakdown. So, I've started hanging out with hot young comedian Jerry Sharp. Big mistake. Then John Kite, Johanna's unrequited love, has an album which does go to Number One and suddenly he exists on another plane of reality - that of the Famouses, a world of rabid fans and VIP access, or excess. Johanna lacks the traditional trappings of fame (famous parents, mind-scorching hotness, exotic sandals etc.) So she does the only thing a self-respecting Lady Sex Adventurer can do. She starts a magazine column critiquing the lives and follies of the Famouses around her. But as Johanna skyrockets to fame herself, she begins to realise that with celebrity comes sacrifice, and hers may mean giving up the one person she was determined to keep. Written by the Times columnist who has clearly spent a lot of her early youth hanging around Camden, smoking, partying and having lots of sex. 337pp, paperback. Remainder mark.