Fat, Forty and Fired by Nigel Marsh

Opening Sentence:

Santa didn't come to Bronte last year.

Synopsis:

'I don't have a catchy slogan that sums up what I learnt from my year off. All I can say is that I lived the dream of dropping out and this is how it was for me...'

Nigel Marsh is a stressed, overweight mortgage slave struggling to balance a high-pressured career, a marriage and the demands of four small children under eight. Then the unthinkable happens - he loses his job. After the initial shock (and some unpleasant surgery) Nigel decides to embrace life outside the office and spend a year taking stock.

Fat, Forty and Fired is a rare gem, a highly entertaining, thought-provoking and inspiring memoir about falling off the hamster wheel and surviving.

Genre:

Biography/Memoir

Rating:

@@@

Pages:

286

BCID:

xxx-7649652

ISBN:

978-1-86325-553-0

Year:

2007

Format:

Paperback

Comments:

This book was not nearly as entertaining as I had expected. There were some funny bits and I really related to Nigel's struggles with the children, but overall I was quite disappointed. To begin with, the story is non-linear, jumping back and forth from past to present and making it a little confusing to read. There was a lot of the 'whinging pom' attempt at humour, which was also off putting. The majority of the time spent reading this, I was a bit bored. This is a take-it-or-leave-it kind of book.