Spanning 30 years of Susan’s life, One Day I Shall Astonish The World doesn’t actually have much in the way of major plot points and is mainly focused on the relationships of the characters.
The characters were largely dislikable, but not in a fun ‘oh she’s mean, this is a complex character’ kind of way. It was more of a ‘I hate every character, why are they like this?’.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending (or the story as a whole) but it had its moments that I found enjoyable. Susan’s life just made me feel miserable because I couldn’t understand why she even gave Norma the time of day.
Thank you for the arc!

In ‘One day I shall Astonish The World’ we follow Susan over several decades dealing with her, somewhat fractious, relationship with her friend Norma. Susan doesn’t finish her degree and chooses marriage (to Roy) and a child; whilst her friend Norma chooses academia and a literary career and although she marries twice, her relationships are far from steady and conventional.

As you would expect the book has gentle humour with funny observations on everyday life. The novel is authentic, charming and uplifting and will appeal to anyone who has enjoyed her previous novels.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. A really good book chronicling a lengthy friendship. Great humour in the writing and really well drawn characters. This was a very enjoyable and well told story!

Introverted Susan and extrovert Norma became friends almost by accident, thrown together professionally they realise they actually need each other. Whilst Susan marries her first serious boyfriend and drops out of college, Norma rushes from one relationship to another and and becomes an acclaimed writer. Now both middle-aged and working at the same University they rediscover their value to each other as a pandemic looms.
Every Nina Stibbe book is a joy from start to finish and this is no exception. The reader warms to Susan whilst getting incredibly frustrated with her passiveness and vacillates between love and hate for Norma. The skill of Stibbe is to get the reader to empathise with each character and yet laugh out loud and the absurdity and mundanity. Just a really wonderful book.

Nina Stibbe is a comic genius, and this exploration of long-term friendship, midlife and marriage is as funny, touching, and subversive as her previous work.

I loved Nina Stibbe's other books (especially Love, Nina) which is exceptional but this one frustrated me a little. She's brilliant on dialogue and characters but the character of Susan just annoyed me as she allowed everyone to dominate her - I kind of wanted her to break out and DO something. A bit underwhelming.

I usually love Nina Stibbe books - and, to an extent, this didn't disappoint. She perfectly captures eras (here, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s) in such a way that you are immersed into it, the fashions, the values, the way life was, or is. Here, Susan is a woman who finds herself working at 'The Pin Cushion', a small-town haberdashery, when she is befriended by Norma - a scientist who decides to go back to complete a masters in English Literature, before rising through the ranks of academia at [fictional] University of Rutland.

Even though Stibbe has an eye for the minutiae of life, and the small things that make humans tick, she also beautifully captures relationships - their ins and outs, their positives and negatives - between people. However, I found this clunky. It covers a lot of ground, from the teenage years of Susan's 80s, through to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. This, in some ways, made me think how much has changed in the world over the past few years - and it brought back to me people's nonchalance, how some people played down the pandemic, thinking it would pass in a few weeks. And here we are. But overall, I feel that this novel misses something. It seems to skip over significant periods of time, such as Honey's childhood. Is Stibbe trying to omit certain points? I am not sure. It seems rushed, and slightly directionless. I am not sure how to describe this novel, really, as it left me feeling a bit empty - there are funny bits, and certainly sad bits, too, but I don't really know what it is setting out to achieve.

Compared to 'Man at the Helm' and "Love, Nina', this falls short I'm afraid. Perhaps tighter editing and filling in the gaps would have been wise.

I really loved Nina Stibbe's first book which was a selection of letters she'd written to her family while working in London but the fiction I've read of hers, while quirky and sometimes amusing, doesn't live up to that early promise. There is much to like in this story about Susan, a woman who drops out of university to have a baby and her subsequent life. It is a tale of a relationship between her and her best friend Norma. Susan is on the whole an appealing character, Norma is not and lets Susan down on several occasions. Some of the observations made about this relationship (and about that between her and her husband) are very good but there is something lacking. There is no narrative arc, no storyline to follow. It wanders on with lots of description and very little happening except for a flurry of activity at the end. I didn't dislike it, I just didn't quite 'get' it and I certainly didn't love it. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC.

Unfortunately DNF-d at 25%, didn't seem to grab me and the level of detail seemed not to help the story to move along. Perhaps it was the wrong time for me to pick this up, Nina Stibbe fans will surely like this.

I am a huge Nina Stibbe fan. I adore her writing and was so glad that One Day I Shall Astonish the World so still full of her trademark humour and brilliant turn of phrase. Following Susan and Norma throughout their lives as they come apart due to their lives being polar opposites. A brilliant read and fantastic characters!

At the start, I felt the humour was forced, too many scenes where the author was trying to make the reader laugh. But I did warm to Susan and I laughed out loud a few times once we got going, and welled up once.

I groaned towards the end when I realised the time period the novel was going to cover. I’m not ready for covid books yet. The pace of the story really changed, sped up, turning into a day by day diary. It felt a bit rushed towards a witty conclusion, but my annoyance at this is probably just a reflection that I could have happily stayed with Susan for many more pages reading about the mundanities of her life, particularly the interactions with her colleagues.

Not that Susan is altogether likeable. I definitely wanted to throttle her at times, when she needed to grow a backbone. And give Norma a thump. (Although most of Norma’s ‘thumpable’ behaviours are just because we don’t expect woman to behave like that… a bloke behaving that way wouldn’t have been notable).

Enjoyable, bordering on farce at times, but sweet. I’ll happily read another Nina Stibbes.

Thank you Netgalley for advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

One Day I Shall Astonish the World (what a great title!) was an enjoyable read and I feel a sense of loss now Susan is no longer in my life. It's definitely a slow burner and it took me a while to get into and there were moments throughout when I did lose interest but I'm so pleased I continued. I loved Susan and the author really brought the character alive with fondness, empathy and humour. It's not a laugh out loud book but there are many hilarious observations and insights throughout. I wished Susan had a better best friend but there is authenticity in the relationship and the fact that many of us are still friends with those from our youth who maybe we'd rather not be ! Stibbe brings the book right up to date with the last section set in the early days of the pandemic and I felt a real sense of hope when I'd finished it. Recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Real and relatable characters and relationships, told in a funny and engaging way and style. Starting 'present day' in the VC office then going back to the start to tell the story of a life, of lifelong friendship, missteps and complexities of people.

Whenever I think the world is turning to s**t, I know that Nina Stibbe will make me feel better. Her latest novel, "One Day I Shall Astonish the World" did just that. It's funny, life affirming and all-around lovely. It's a study of the natural ups and downs of life and the family and friends who fuel it over a lifetime.

Tempted to put "One Day I Shall Astonish the World" on a post-it next to my desk to remind myself that it's never too late. Highly recommended.

Susan and Norma have been friends for years, Norma becomes a successful university lecturer whereas Susan has to abandon her uni dreams , get married and has her child. Through the years their friendship soars and wanes. Funny and brilliantly written, will Susan eventually reach her goal?

DNF @ 23%

The narrative is bogged down with details and isn't going anywhere fast. Stibbe's sense of humour has its moments ( "My husband Roy and I have been at odds, starting when I accidentally called out the VC's name during an unusually playful moment. All I can think is that I somehow got the names 'Roy' and 'Professor Willoughby' muddled." ) but was a lot more miss than hit. After asking myself if this was going anywhere for the third time, I knew it was time to give up.

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.

Instead, I listened to the ramblings of a middle aged woman who had made bad choices and ended up with an indifferent husband and a 'best friend' who epitomises the term 'frenemies'. I'd go as far as to say she is emotionally abusive and I hated Sue for putting up with it.

The only interesting character is Honey, and although everyone talks about how wonderful she is, they don't actually seem to understand or like her very much.

I kept waiting for Sue to get a back bone and stand up for herself, do something worthwhile to legitimise the title, but in the end fate takes over and the book splutters to an end. It almost feels as though the author is searching for how to end it, then real life world affairs kick in and give her an out.

It was dull and had I not been reading it to review for Netgalley, I probably would have DNF.

This book grows and grows. It starts a little slowly but is quirkily funny throughout. It is a life-affirming and subtle read. Three stars seems harsh when it is closer to meriting four stars than three, but I try to be very sparing with four. Thanks to Penguin for a no obligation advance copy.

One Day I Shall Astonish the World is a book that took me a while to get into. We chart the main character Susan’s life in the 1990s through to the present day, as an older woman. We experience alongside her an array of key milestones such as meeting her husband Roy, forming key friendships, and having her first child.

It’s a fairly slow burner of a novel, with humorous parts present – I always think Nina Stibbe’s writing is funny, whatever the subject – but for the first third or so I wasn’t sure whether to continue reading as the story wasn’t grabbing me. However, the more I got to know Susan, the more I wanted to read about her despite not necessarily connecting with her. She is not surrounded by particularly nice people - or perhaps I should say, not the right people for her. Her ‘best friend’ Norma in particular is a tricky character and her husband Roy, though lovely to start with, changes significantly after they have their first child. Though I liked Susan, I didn’t care for most of the other characters.

I found the book a bit poignant and sad at times, as I’m sure is intended. I really like Nina’s writing in general so I continued with this novel and overall I am glad I did, but I much preferred other books I’ve read by this author.

One Day I Shall Astonish the World charts 30 years in the life of Susan, PA to the Vice Chancellor of Rutland University. On a life-changing day in 1990, Susan meets not only her future husband, Roy, but perhaps more significant to the story, her future on-off friend, Norma.

Norma is the daughter of the owners of The Pin Cushion, a dressmaking shop at which Susan has a Saturday job. Although both young women are intelligent and ambitious, it’s made clear by Norma’s mother that Susan is not to regard Norma as a personal friend, and the scene is set for Susan’s life as perennial underachiever while Norma soars.

If you’ve read any Nina Stibbe books before, you’ll know that she excels at uncovering the humour in small, every day events, and Susan makes a sharp-eyed commentator on all she sees as her life ambitions are gradually thwarted, from dropping out of university when she discovers she is pregnant to learning to take a back seat while Norma hogs the spotlight at every opportunity.

There are darkly funny moments throughout the novel, such as the dogging-related death of one character and Susan’s ponderings on whether her mother’s life-changing train accident could have been inadvertently caused by the writer Ian McEwen.

The narrative takes us right up to the coronavirus pandemic, and there is a change of pace in the last few chapters as we’re suddenly taken out of a novel that feels strictly fictional and into events that most of us will be able to empathise with as Susan and her family are faced with a health crisis.

One Day I Shall Astonish the World is a fairly gentle yet absorbing read, detailed throughout with mischievous observations of the less attractive aspects of human nature.