I absolutely LOVE Nina Stibbe but I just didn’t enjoy this book, it had some really great parts but just lacked something for me. I also couldn’t get over how unlikeable Norma was throughout the whole story.

One Day I Will Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe is a novel that examines the unexpected twists and turns of a life-long friendship in an incredibly open and frank way.

First things first, I found Stibbe to be an excellent comedic writer and actually found myself laughing out loud several times throughout the book. Stibbe manages to handle even dark topics with an air of genuine humour rather than it feeling cringey.

This is actually the first novel I’ve read where COVID-19 was actually woven into the story. I thought that might bother me but I think Stibbe has managed the weave this in brilliantly so that it actually fits in really well rather than being forced in for mere shock value. In general, I think the accurate recollections of the events, personalities, products and fashions of the late 20th and early 21st century were absolutely spot-on.

Whilst I did feel like the story itself was a bit bland and the characters, at times, felt a bit difficult to care for, I think Stibbe’s writing more than makes up for these minor issues.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book with its realistic depictions of not only long female friendships but also real-world events. I will be recommending this to friends and will be looking out for any future publications by Nina Stibbe.

Having heard so many great things about Nina Stibbe I was really looking forward to this book, and I’m pleased to say that it didn’t disappoint. She has such a wonderful way with words and is a master of comic writing.

One Day I Shall Astonish The World tells the story of Susan and Norma, who meet in their late teens working at a haberdashery in Leicester. The story focuses on Susan and how her friendship with Norma develops over the course of forty years, as Susan marries and raises a daughter whilst Norma pursues a career as a lecturer and academic.

The friendship between them is brilliantly constructed and so totally believable - many of us will be able to relate to the friend who can be rather annoying and regularly disappears from our lives, but we know would ultimately be there for us and look out for us.

I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A lovely funny, sharp and bittersweet reflection on life, loves and lost opportunities. There's a motley collection of characters with all the idiosyncrasies you can imagine, pulled together in a riotous thread by the wonderful Susan, who is a woman to take to your heart.

Susan reveals more than she thinks as she goes through life partly aware of what's happening around her but also blissfully ignorant of much of her surroundings.

The skill and intelligence of the author shows Susan set in a world she only partially understands while letting her reveal more to the reader than she knows herself.

Very funny, very aware and moving book from start to finish - love it.

I really wanted to like this book but I found it quite a slow and difficult read. I just do not enjoy books with no story arc, no definite beginning, middle or end and I really do not like the inclusion of Covid in story lines (especially when you have covid yourself at time of reading and it really had no relevance at all to the story)

Positives - there were a few laugh out loud moments and Nina does have a beautiful way of telling a story. I think this book would be enjoyed by others, it just wasn't for me.

On the face of it this is one of a cannon of many novels about female friendship and the minutiae of everyday domestic life.
But Stibbe’s writing is quite unusual.
Told through the protagonist, Susan, the narrator’s voice is funny, quirky and unreliable.
We never quite know where we are with Susan and her seemingly prosaic life and enduring relationship with Norma. Is Norma really a toxic friend, frequently taking advantage of the hapless Susan?
Or is Susan’s perception out of kilter, as evidenced by her championing of her rather charmless daughter Honey and endurance of her prosaic husband Roy?
I frequently giggled at Stibbe’s turn of phrase although there is also something a little meandering about this novel, as if the plot is not of major consequence.
But all in all, I enjoyed it. I think we’ve all had a friendship a bit like Susan and Norma’s - routed in a shared past but little else: valued, but also a source of great irritation!
Recommended: a unique voice and a novel that will make you chuckle.

I was sent a copy of One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe to read and review by NetGalley. Another great read by Nina Stibbe! While it had me laughing out loud in the very first chapter this isn’t a laugh a minute story. It is heartfelt, poignant and actually quite sad with moments of irreverence (there are quite a few of those) that really made be chuckle. I think this novel will resonate with a lot of women (it certainly did with me!) if only in the smallest way. I’m sure we have all felt some of the emotions that protagonist Susan experiences, regarding our friends, spouses and children over the years. A very insightful book about relationships and how tricky they can be to navigate. I love the author’s writing whether she is making me laugh or cry!

I've never read anything by Nina Stibbe and will be quickly rectifying that after this great read - I highly recommend if you want a sweep through life with some real humour. A read I greatly recommend

It's a shameful to confession to say this is the first Nina Stibbe book I've ever read. But now I know what I've been missing out on. And I have the feeling that atoning for my sin is going to be a lot of fun. One Day I Shall Astonish The World is a joyous read and Stibbe's unique voice and wry humour shine through at every turn. Returning to this book each evening was like having the very best, funniest friend on hand. On the face of it, Susan's life could sound like a pitiful litany of missed opportunities, what with her lacklustre husband, her unrecognised talents and a best friend who steals her best ideas (not to mention her wedding dress design). But the small triumphs that Susan wrestles from her days are written about with such warmth that this is a wise, uplifting read. The writing is just genius, celebrating the surreal, the mundane and the poignant moments in life.

Susan and Norma begin their friendship in 1990s Leicestershire when working together at the local haberdashery shop, The Pin Cushion. But their friendship is not one for the ages; the truth is neither is particularly inclined to befriend anyone else. Now, thirty years later, Susan finds herself questioning the choices of her youth, from her love life to her work and, crucially, friendship, in the lead-up to Covid-19 implications on life.

This is a deeply character-driven novel (of the bildungsroman style) exploring the depths of every action to find the feeling within it. While this is compelling, it does make the story, somewhat, drag. The extent of the protagonists' deliberation over every moment is insightful- she feels real- but frustrating as a reader because you just want her to accept aspects of her situation so the plot can progress. Instead, it's a slog through her life with some humorous observations made.

I was looking forward to reading this because I like Nina Stibbe’s writing. The title is the motto of the fictional Midlands university around which much of the action takes place. If there is a plot, it’s about the on-off friendship between two women over many years. Susan meets Norma when she has a part-time job with the latter’s parents. She’s at the university when she gets pregnant and drops out. After that, she is a housewife and mother, living right opposite the university. Norma disapproves. Later, Susan gets a job as PA to the Vice Chancellor but whatever she does, Norma seems to go one better, just doing whatever she pleases and damn everyone else. It’s sometimes hard to see how Susan still thinks of her as her closest friend.

Stibbe’s gift is to have developed a very flat style of writing which describes what most people would regard as bizarre events as if they were perfectly normal. I’m slightly reminded of Anne Tyler (a huge compliment) although Stibbe is not as good. Don’t read this looking for excitement and interesting plot developments. It’s a slice of life: ordinary people who are not so ordinary after all. Who is? The sudden arrival of the Coronavirus towards the end of the book does seem as if the author had been suddenly overtaken by events and the end is rather abrupt.

I read this thanks to NetGalley and it will be published on 21st April. Sadly for Nina Stibbe, I think I will always like <I>Love, Nina</I> better than any of her other books. Unfair, when it was her first but I love it.

Like a lot of women of her generation, Susan is really clever but didn't fulfill her academic or career aspirations. Her life revolves around her partner, her kids, her friend Norma and her home next to the university campus that she never attended as a student but where she later gets a job.
This is Susan's story and it will make you care about her, shout at her and want her to fly. One Day I Shall Astonish the World is the university's slogan and throughout the book you hope that it will also be true for Susan.
A gentle read that shows the depth and importance of small things, Nina Stibbe always delivers on characters who make us smile and often laugh out loud. This book is no exception. The relationship between Susan and Norma is the star of the show. It is often painful to read, but is very insightful and probably representative of so many female friendships. (Not that most of us dare admit it.) A shout out to the children/young people too. Susan's daughter Honey in particular was fabulous.
I really enjoyed it. Thank you to the author and her publishers for the opportunity to read and review #OneDayIShallAstonishTheWorld.

From the prize-winning author of Reasons to be Cheerful comes a story about the ebb and flow of female friendship over half a lifetime. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

This wonderfully-domestic, darkly-comedic novel frankly depicts the unexpected twists and turns that life-long relationships are richer for enduring. Best friends Susan and Norma-Jean meet by chance in their early twenties when they become colleagues at a small haberdashery owned by Norma’s parents: their connection endures for decades, often in spite of themselves, through marriages, careers, child-rearing and all the other challenges that adulthood demands of us. “I don’t know if I thought to myself that morning, wow, it’s not even ten o’clock and I’ve already met my future husband and my best friend for life. But I should have, because I had,” reflects Susan, and the events of the book unfold in similar fashion, much like life: often it’s the tiniest of decisions or encounters which leads you down an unexpected fork in the road.

We meet Susan in 2020, hard at work for a nearby university’s college, reflecting on her twenty-eight year marriage to Roy: her husband’s new obsession is longevity, specifically his desire to live to a hundred years old, and Susan accommodates his increasingly bizarre exercises with the kind but tired resignation of those in very long-term relationships. Her adult daughter Honey has also recently returned to their family home, scuffing up the smooth domesticity which has settled over the past few decades. The story jumps between the present day and the early 90s, examining all of Susan’s relationships with equal intensity but particularly her passionate and painful friendship with Norma, and the odd undercurrent of cruelty which ripples just below the surface. Superbly-drawn characters come and go as Susan reviews her life, pondering what young Susan actually wanted, what she might want from life now – and whether giving up on wild flights of fancy is an appropriate price to pay for day-to-day happiness. Superbly funny, deeply nostalgic and richly realistic with an ending that might just leave you punching the air, this is a comforting read for anyone reviewing their own hopes and dreams.

featured in Cambridge Edition Book Club February

THis was such a gripping and compelling read. It was well written with well developed and likeable characters with a well executed storyline. I couldn't put this book down, I really enjoyed reading it,

What a stunning book! I loved the writing! The author was hilarious

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read a digital arc in exchange for my feedback.

Susan never seems to really live up to her potential. She drifts into marriage and motherhood,, and ends up working permanently at the haberdasher’s shop where she had been a Saturday girl after dropping out of university. By contrast, the owner’s daughter Norma, who becomes her best friend, delegates the hard work while interrogating Susan on her knowledge of literature to forward her own academic career. Norma’s star rises as Susan’s life plods along, but even so Norma is always critical of her and undermines her at every turn. Susan eventually finds her comfort zone working as a driver and the PA to the university’s vice chancellor- until Norma once again casts her shadow. But Susan is determined to have her day in the sun. Very funny in a subtle yet piercingly sharp way, the humour reminded me of the late, great Victoria Wood. The accurate dissection of domestic minutiae hits the target repeatedly, and I really enjoyed the portrayal of 1990s mores and culture. Although the relationship between Norma and Susan is frequently toxic, there is also something touching in the way it endures, while the pomposity and petty rule-following of academic life is captured brilliantly. An absolute tonic.

Having enjoyed Nina Stibbe’s previous books, all thought-provoking and composed in a unique literary voice, I was delighted to be granted a free ARC from the publishers and NetGalley of her latest release. Writing that this book details the friendship between two women called Susan and Norma does not make One Day I Shall Astonish the World sound terribly exciting, but the book is so much more. Documenting the joint working life, careful acquaintance and then decade-long friendship between two fictional but so familiar-sounding women that reaches into 2020, this book touches on many interpersonal topics with great sensitivity and authenticity. It is also suffused in Stibbe’s usual wonderful sense of humour, so is well worth a read! Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for the free ARC that allowed me to produce this honest and unbiased review.

The main character, Susan, works alongside her employer's daughter Norma in a dress shop. We follow the story arc as their relationship and careers develop, from colleagues, to best friends, then as the relationship sours, to colleagues again. The story is set over many years following the lives of the characters and ends more or less up to date during the pandemic. I love the writing of Nina Stibbe and enjoyed the book tremendously.

I loved this story with snapshots of Susan’s life from teenage to middle age, accompanied throughout by her husband Roy and intermittently by her friend Norma. Small details of everyday events reveal huge life events, and Susan’s ability to keep going. This is a novel in which comic phrasing hides Susan’s envy and disappointment in not achieving her academic potential or being validated for her contributions to the lives of others and the university she works in. At times a study of friendship, of marriage, at others a campus novel it is a joy. I felt seen when Susan’s conversation style was described as ‘personal anecdote and rambling digression’ and am still laughing about the headtorch. Thank you Nina!