Smashing People

'A rollicking tale... rips along with terrific energy' - Independent on Sunday

Its portrayal of the vulgarities of literary London hits just the right note

A rollicking read. Fishwick has a fine ear for the absurdities and pomposity of the in-crowd chatter

Michael Fishwick's debut is not only brilliant but also different. Packed with unobtrusive felicities of phrase and feeling, this wickedly wide-eyed picture of life in the eighties among the magazines and takeovers, the waif-like women and the strangely pathetic domestic lives of those who live by and among the media is top-notch satire

Michael Fishwick has captured the essence of that nasty decade and its catastrophic insensibility

Michael Fishwick grew up in London and graduated from Oxford. He works in book publishing, is married and has three children. His second novel, Sacrifices, was published in 2001.

It's the 1980s. Thatcher's Downing Street, champagne is the drink du jour, it is the hour of the entrepreneur. 
 
Wilf Wellingborough is not really the man for the moment. Pleasant, friendly, puzzled by life and by love, he's astonished when Jimmy Spalding, whom he's known since childhood, gives him the job of editing Arts Unlimited, a magazine with no circulation to speak of but with enormous prestige. 
 
The story of seven friends from Oxford and their adventures in the world of the media in the 1980s, Smashing People is written with a wickedly funny eye for the absurdities of journalism and publishing and a profound wisdom about the ways of the human heart.

Michael Fishwick

Christopher Hughes was a remarkable teacher. He knew every one of the boys in his classes as if he could see into their minds. He was extraordinarily dynamic and more than a little frightening - to pupils and colleagues alike. 
 
Sacrifices begins with his funeral, as his daughter Anna looks back at his life. In the subsequent chapters we see Christopher again through the eyes of those whose lives he touched until at last the kaleidoscope is shaken into focus and we discover the truth about Christopher Hughes, his life and his death.

Sacrifices

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