Tag Archives: Paris

Almost Nothing Happened

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Almost Nothing Happened by Meg Rosoff

Book of the Week: 25 August 2024

Bloomsbury, 2024
Cover illustration by Amber Day

If this is an example of ‘nothing happening’ I’d hate to see an incidence of something more eventful. Everything happens.

Callum has experienced a dull and embarassing exchange trip to France. His French is rudimentary, he fell in unrequited love with his host’s daughter and spent most of his time taking the family dog for a walk. By the time he reaches Paris to catch the Eurostar home, he is glad it’s all over. Then, in a fit of spontaneity, just as his train is about to leave, he gathers up his rucksack, turns around and walks back into the city to see what life has to offer. He has very little money and no clear idea of what to do, but he knows one other person in Paris: his cousin Harrison who has been studying music there for several years. He sets off through the boiling hot streets (there’s an August heatwave) and pleads with Harrison, whom he hardly knows, to let him stay a couple of nights in his cramped flat. Harrison is hardly welcoming, but reluctantly agrees and invites him to attend his concert that evening where he is playing his oboe in the orchestra. During the concert’s interval he gets talking to Arnaud and Lilou who are sitting next to him. They are step-brother and sister and speak to him in English, which is a relief after all the struggles he has had with the language. Matters take an alarming turn when Harrison discovers that his oboe has been stolen at the end of the evening and Arnaud is the prime suspect. Callum then gets swept up in a whirlwind of events involving various stolen items and a motorbike chase through Paris, but more as terrified observer and unwilling sidekick.

This is such a fun romp and, at 231 pages, can be read in a single sitting. Seventeen year old Callum is wonderfully observant and dryly funny and if you would like to read an excerpt here is a link.

Tremendous Things AND Worst. Holiday. Ever.

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Tremendous Things by Susin Nielsen

Worst. Holiday. Ever. by Charlie Higson

Books of the Week: 18 July 2021

Cover design by Jack Noel

Illustrated by Warwick Johnson-Cadwell

 

Now that the temperature here is registering 30 degrees celsius and there are only a few days of term left, here are two great reads that feature holidays.

In Tremendous Things we are back in familiar Susin Nielsen territory with loving families, quirky friends and a central character who is self-conscious, awkward and sympathetic. Wilbur recounts his life of what he sees as an agonising list of failures and embarrassments, before a French exchange student called Charlie lands in his life and things start to look up. Charlie is gorgeous, self-confident and sophisticated and Wilbur is smitten, but can he get her to look past his eccentric mums (who he calls The Mumps), his 85 year old best friend Sal and his dachshund Templeton who has some pretty unappealing habits? When Charlie returns to France, Wilbur’s friends persuade him to undergo a ‘Queer Eye’ type transformation and, in the romantic setting of Paris, set him up to try and persuade her to view him in a different light.

Worst. Holiday. Ever. is a departure from Charlie Higson’s action-packed adventures like Young Bond and The Enemy series. Stan is an ordinary boy who doesn’t have to deal with zombies or super-villains. He is, however, worrying about all the things he hopes he never has to do:

  1. Bungee jumping
  2. Anything where you have to use a parachute
  3. Dancing
  4. Dancing in public
  5. Going on Strictly Come Dancing
  6. White-water rafting
  7. Fire-eating
  8. Alligator wrestling
  9. Kissing
  10. Going on holiday with people you don’t know
  11. Octopuses

The problem is that he is going to have to do number 10 and it may even involve number 11. Felix in his class was meant to be going on holiday with his best friend Archie, but Archie broke his leg and everyone else was booked up. In desperation, Felix invites Stan and Stan panics and accepts. Now Stan is stuck in a villa in Italy with a motley collection of Felix’s family and friends and feeling very out of his depth. There’s Felix’s distant and slightly scary dad, a group of intimidating girls, a man who spends his entire day on the internet and another who is never seen without a glass of wine. Stan is not only worried about disgracing himself but, when the news from home is less than reassuring, he wonders if he will be able to cope at all.

Charlie Higson conjures up a believable cast of characters that are alternately worrying, touching and hilarious and a holiday situation that we can all imagine ourselves experiencing. This is, in my view, his best. book. ever.