Starter for Ten by David Nicholls
Starter for Ten by David Nicholls is the classic novel about a working class young man trying to settle at university in the 1980s. It was recommended to me by the same friend who recommended Nicholls’ Sweet Sorrow, after I read his most recent book, You Are Here.
Brian Jackson lives with his widowed mum. His friends like to drink and fight. But Brian also likes to read, listen to Kate Bush and answer the questions on TV quiz shows.
When he goes to university to study English Literature (or Eng Lit as he calls it), he finds himself surrounded by the sort of people he’s never met before. Rich people. Posh people. People who went to private school. People who are cleverer than him.
And he meets Alice, who is beautiful and cool. Brian and Alice are on the university’s University Challenge team together, which means they get to see each other every week when they rehearse for their big day on TV. He even manages to persuade her to go out for a meal with him, but would a beautiful young woman like Alice really be interested in a spotty student like Brian?
Brian isn’t the most likeable of characters. He struggles to fit in anywhere – too working class for university, too well read for his old friends – and ends up drinking and arguing with people wherever he goes.
I wasn’t sure where Starter for Ten was going to go, but it was an enjoyable and humorous read, with a few twists and turns along the way.
I always thought David Nicholls had written a lot of books, but he’s only written six. I read One Day many years ago and have now read three of his books this year. I will definitely look out for the others. There were themes in Starter for Ten which were very similar to Sweet Sorrow – almost too similar for my liking. Both were about boys who struggled to fit in and whose friendships revolved around drinking and fighting. In both books, the love interest was ‘posher’ than the boy. The theatre is a big theme in Sweet Sorrow and it’s also a theme in Starter for Ten. In Sweet Sorrow, Charlie worked in a petrol station and In Starter for Ten, Brian’s best friend, Spencer, worked in a petrol station.
Good to know it’s an enjoyable read! A humorous ’80s campus novel sounds worth checking out.
Thank you! It is well worth a read.
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of this book. I’ll have to check it out. Kate Bush was my lifeline in 1980, lol.
It is a very well known book, but somehow I’d never thought to read it before. You will probably relate well if Kate Bush was your 1980s lifeline! I preferred Sweet Sorrow, which was more relatable to me as a 1990s teenager.