Making Nice

Description

Ferdinand Mount's Making Nice takes place in the murky world of London PR firms, the back rooms of Westminster and on the campaign trail in America and Africa. Our protagonist is the hapless Dickie, lately the diplomatic correspondent for a London financial newspaper. He and his wife Jane, an oncologist, and daughters Flo, an aspiring ballet dancer, and Lucy, a teenager of fourteen, find themselves bound up in an ever more alarming series of unfortunate events, revolving around the shady character of Ethel (Ethelbert), founder of the dubious publication relations agency Making Nice. With echoes of Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop and TV series The Thick of It, as well as thinly veiled portraits of Cambridge Analytica and political personae known to many, Making Nice is a masterly take on the madness of contemporary society. Indeed, if there is one central theme to this most accomplished novel, it is the limitless human capacity for self-deception. This is Ferdinand Mount at his very best. Making Nice is something that only a man with his intelligence, wit, perception and sense of the ridiculous could write and pull off so brilliantly. Following the critical and commercial success of his family memoir Kiss Myself Goodbye, which read at times like a novel, Mount's devoted fans will not be disappointed with this raucous and highly enjoyable work of fiction.

Ferdinand Mount is a novelist, essayist and former editor of the Times Literary Supplement from 1991 to 2002. He was previously head of the Number Ten Policy Unit under Margaret Thatcher. As a journalist, he has contributed regular columns to the Spectator, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times. His novel Of Love and Asthma, part of a six-volume series, A Chronicle of Modern Twilight, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1992. He lives in North London with his family.

Ferdinand Mount's exquisite writing draws you into a gorgeously horrid world of lies, where all authenticity is faked, and where the biggest deceptions are the ones we practise upon ourselves. Perhaps you recognise the place he's talking about. He exposes such cold truths with such warmth - I am in eternal awe of his writing, wherever I find it. * Marina Hyde * Mount's storytelling is irresistible * Literary Review * One of our finest prose stylists * Daily Telegraph * Making Nice is the funniest, shrewdest, most elegant novel I have read in years. What will Mount conjure up next? * The Oldie * ...like all his novels...show his gifts for comedy, physical description and for capturing idiosyncratic mannerisms. * Wall Street Journal * ...This pacey book is great fun to read. * Sunday Times * At Making Nice's heart is a serious lesson about the fine line between success and scandal, truth and lies. * Chloe Ashby, The Spectator * A razor-sharp comedy of political misfortunes. * Literary Review * Mr Mount has written a satire to be consumed in one sitting, a pointed critique of the modern world delivered with pluck and verve. * The Economist * [Mount] is very good on behavioural quirks, often evoking them with unexpected analogies... Making Nice is a comedy of manners with satirical trappings, and highly enjoyable, too. * Nicholas Clee, Times Literary Supplement * Seldom can a satirical novel have proved more pertinent. * Sarah Meyrick, The Church Times * So begins a rollicking rollercoaster ride through modern politics...showcasing Mount's pitch-perfect comic ear and a keen eye for caricature. * Catholic Herald *