One Day I Shall Astonish the World

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It’s notable that the haberdashers where the women met was called The Pin Cushion, a role that life seems intent on foisting upon Susan. Early on, she’s compelled to drop out of university. While Norma, who remains an enigmatic figure, goes on to have a glamorous academic career, Susan finds herself with a husband and child, yearning for nothing loftier than a pine front door (theirs is plastic) and a vegetable medley (she’s married a man who’ll eat only iceberg lettuce and baked beans). But now, thirty years later, faced with a husband seeking immortality and Norma out of reach on a wave of professional glory, Susan begins to wonder whether she has made the right choices about life, love, work, and, most importantly, friendship.

Susan Faye Warren—wife, mother, worker, and friend—shares the events of her adult life, interspersed with much deadpan detail, in Stibbe’s latest comic/domestic dispatch.I properly hooted with laughter reading this book and there are times when a single line gave me such a catch in my throat I thought I would cry. It's perfection. Susan and Norma have been best friends for years, at first thrust together by force of circumstance (a job at The Pin Cushion, a haberdashery shop in 1990s Leicestershire) and then by force of character (neither being particularly inclined to make friends with anyone else). But now, thirty years later, faced with a husband seeking immortality and Norma out of reach on a wave of professional glory, Susan begins to wonder whether she has made the right choices about life, love, work, and, most importantly, friendship. In April look out for...Love, Nina writer Nina Stibbe's One Day I Shall Astonish The World' Daily Mirror, What's Hot in 2022 Nina Stibbe takes on female friendship and ambition in a novel that has all its predecessors' gossipy bookishness and quirky charm * Observer * Nina Stibbe's latest novel, One Day I Shall Astonish the World buttresses her position as the Kingsley Amis of the twenty-first century. . . . Stibbe's genius, like Amis's, is for noting the cadences of ordinary speech and the idiotic platitudes we all spout. In the anatomy of English conversation, Stibbe (born 1962) takes up where Amis (died 1995) left off. There are echoes of Adrian Mole, Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood - but with no copying or pastiche. Stibbe makes the everyday funny. If a Martian asked me to explain the tragicomedy of normal English life, I would direct him to Stibbe -- Harry Mount * Spectator, 2022 Books of the Year *

I think I should have read the blurb better for this book, as with the title I was expecting either some coming of age story, or for someone to tire of their dull existence and overhaul their whole life. I'd also seen lots of quotes about how funny this was and was really looking forward to it. As a comic novelist, Stibbe is so truly incomparable, I can only describe this perfect novel as Stibbe meets Stibbe, with a touch of Stibbe. (And if you love Nina Stibbe…you’ll love this.) For as long as I could make it last, the world just felt a bit nicer. A true gift of a novel, I utterly adored it."— MEG MASON, author of Sorrow and Bliss

One Day I Shall Astonish the World by the always entertaining Nina Stibbe is a story of female friendship * Irish Times, Books To Look Out For In 2022 * To read a Nina Stibbe novel is to experience joy."— Elin Hilderbrand, bestselling author of 28 SUMMERS Clever and funny, it takes a sharp look at the intricacies of marriage, friendship, work, and driving. As with all Stibbe's writing there is a pleasingly perfect balance of wisdom with jokes' Cathy Rentzenbrink Sue Townsend's heir. A moving ode to marriage and friendship and the great joke of agency in a world where everything can turn upside down in a heartbeat' Irish Times

Lauren Graham: 'Why are men still surprised they like Gilmore Girls?' 24 November, 2023 The 20 best children’s books for Christmas 2023 24 November, 2023 How They Broke Britain by James O'Brien is full of anger - and not much else 23 November, 2023 Nina Stibbe makes being funny look easy, but that's just because she's very, very good at it' Clare Chambers

About Nina Stibbe

I started off highlighting all the brilliant observations and one-liners but had to give up because there were so many. Nina Stibbe makes being funny look easy, but that's just because she's very, very good at it -- Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

Nina Stibbe takes on female friendship and ambition in a novel that has all its predecessors' gossipy bookishness and quirky charm' ObserverFor beautifully funny and well-observed comic writing, Nina Stibbe is your go-to author. In her latest release, a tale of lifelong friendship between Susan and Norma, she explores the mistakes, rivalries and love we all experience in life' Stylist, Best Novels for 2022