The Newsagent’s Window: Adventures in a World of Second-Hand Cars and Lost Cats by John Osborne hits the £1 shelf in my shop.
Simon & Schuster, 2010, Paperback.
First in this, paperback, edition. From the cover: John Osbornes second book is a comic voyage through small-town Britain via the ads in newsagents windows: lost kittens, personal ads, a second-hand bike for sale, yoga classes Moving into an unfurnished house, John at first uses the ads in newsagents windows to buy practical things like a bed and a settee. But on impulse one day he replies to an advert for a psychic masseur named Lucy, who tells him some startling home-truths as he sits on her settee in his pants. So begins a year of self-discovery and a wild obsession with newsagents windows, which take John to a shoe-exhibition, to an Alan Ayckbourn play, to a wrestling match. He finds himself the owner of a mans entire video collection, a second-hand bike, a clapped-out Ford Escort and discovers a community of a bygone age. Looking to improve his German, he meets a pretty German girl named Leni Hilarious and thought-provoking, The Newsagents Window restores our faith in our fellow human beings, in a world without ebay and reveals the odd things that can happen if you let newsagents windows dictate your day.
Very Good.
[XI] 257 pages. Trade Paperback (9¼” x 6″).
