Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About - Softcover

Millington, Mil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340828641 ISBN 13: 9780340828649

Verlag: Hodder Paperbacks, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

Pel Dalton's life is uneventful. He spends his days bluffing through an IT job in the university library, pillow-fighting with his two sons and finding new things to argue about with Ursula, his German girlfriend. But all this is about to change. When his boss suddenly disappears, and Pel steps reluctantly into his shoes, his life begins to spiral out of control. Stolen money, missing colleagues, ominous calls from Hong Kong, and something nasty beneath the university foundations are only the beginning of Pel's problems. Faced with embarrassing PTA meetings and a fridge that really needs defrosting, Pel is about to learn that sometimes the things that drive you crazy can be the only things that keep you sane.

Über diesen Titel

Review:

In his weekly Guardian column, Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, Mil Millington archly chronicles the domestic dialectical antagonisms of life with his German partner, Margret. Although this novel, confusingly, shares the same title as the column and its central characters, Pel Dalton and Ursula Krötenjäger, are an Anglo-German couple not averse to disagreement, it is, without wishing to make a blindingly obvious point, a work of fiction. Millington's customarily whimsical take on contemporary gender relations is, of course, much in evidence but some of the sharper comedy here actually occurs beyond the familial settings. In certain respects the book has possibly more in common with the wry, mild-mannered satire of the Ealing films or David Nobbs' Reginald Perrin than the novels of Tony Parsons, Nick Hornby and co. (At one point Millington, though no doubt entirely unintentionally, even pilfers a classic Perrin gag.)

The book's narrator and protagonist, Pel, is a slightly hapless father of two who works in a library, or in modern parlance a "Learning Centre", at the University of North-Eastern England ("UoNe to its friends"). When his boss Terry Steven Russell ("TSR") vanishes from the University not long after babbling about extradition treaties during a game of Lazer Wars, Pel is promoted to Computer Team Administration, Software Acquisition and Training Manager (or "CTASATM" for short.) While the post pays no more money and he still has to do his old job as well, it does mean his partner Ursula, an affectionate if exacting German, can forge ahead with long-cherished plans to move house. Needless to say neither moving nor dealing with disgruntled colleagues and negotiating the university's slippery corporate structure prove easy. But as the latter finds Pel embroiled in acting as courier for the Triads, presiding over a scheme to build a new extension over a historical burial site and hiding a deadly nerve gas under its foundations, what he and his girlfriend argue about rather pales into insignificance. --Travis Elborough

Review:

A brilliantly written comedy. A novel that manages to be both funny and affectionate ( Guardian)

With his tear-inducing humour, Millington has tapped into the zeitgeist, Helen Fielding-style. ( Vogue)

While books that claim to be 'laugh-out-loud funny' are legion, ones such as this that actually are are rarer than molars on a Rhode Island Hen . . . There is little to say about coupledom that is not wittily and often movingly explored here. Sharply-written, brilliantly observed and absolutely hilarious. ( Wendy Holden, Daily Mail)

A fantastic debut - a funny and heart-warming comedy about love, fatherhood and being in the wrong places at all the wrong times. ( Essentials)

Insightful and wickedly funny. ( Heat)

The plot escalates with all the shameless hyperbole needed to fuel a really good row . . . This is a very funny book. ( Observer)

Compulsive reading . . . drenched in self-deprecating humour. ( Metro)

Mil Millington's comic timing is spot-on in this laugh-out-loud warm-hearted and engaging novel. ( Publishing News)

A very funny look at relationships. ( Company)

It's impossible not to laugh out loud at the Anglo-German quips and world-weary observations that tumble off the page ( Guardian)

A brilliant, thoroughly urbane hoot ( The Big Issue in the North)

A funny and touching read ( Hello)

Hilarious and insightful . . . Realistic and acerbic, this first novel is bound to receive a lot of attention. ( Bookseller)

Mil Millington's legendary bust-ups with his long-term lover . . . have now spawned a madcap novel. ( In Style)

It's really funny ( Daily Express)

A surprise hit . . . a quirky little comedy. ( Mirror)

Guaranteed to raise a smile ( Irish News)

Funny . . . moves at a cracking pace ( Sunday Mirror)

A comedy of relationships in all their confusions ( Sunday Life)

I don't normally quote for fiction, but as clearly all Mil has done in the way of fiction here is change the name 'Mil' to the name 'Pel', I have no compunction whatsoever in pointing out that this is completely hilarious. ( Jenny Colgan)

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Hodder Paperbacks
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0340828641
• ISBN 13: 9780340828649
• Einband: Paperback