Misadventures

Description

Misadventures is a unique ensemble of mishaps and anecdotes revealing the ups and downs of one woman's life in twentieth-century London. Sylvia Smith's deadpan patter belies the startling complexities, humour and darkness at the heart of this remarkable memoir.

Born in East London to working-class parents as the Second World War was drawing to a close, Sylvia Smith ducked out of a career in hairdressing at the last minute to begin a life of office work. A driving licence and a school swimming certificate were her only qualifications, although she was also quite good at dressmaking. Misadventures was her first book. She died on 23 February 2013.

This is the nicest, wisest and funniest book I have read for ages. I sat up till 1.30am and read it all the way through, giggling happily -- HELEN FIELDING, author of Bridget Jones' Diary Outlandishly banal . . . Strangely gripping . . . Smith wins you over' * * The Times * * What was banal becomes weirdly compelling - a life of utter normality (whatever that means) drawn in the way literature seldom, if ever, describes it: funny, poignant, tragic and, in the end, curiously hopeful * * Daily Telegraph * * The Diary of a Nobody for the twenty-first century * * Guardian * * A strange, unsettling and oddly moving read . . . it gives a voice to one ordinary woman's life, of the kind rarely commemorated in autobiographical writing * * Guardian * * it's a curiously refreshing twist on the memoir * * Time Out * * Sometimes sad, often funny, sometimes merely staggering in its banality - moreover, unquestionably well-written - the one think this book never feels is "ordinary" * * New Statesman * * I could not put down her unusual, deflated, hilarious book. It deserves to be a bestseller * * Observer * * [Misadventures is] fast becoming cult reading. The unvarnished story of life as lived by silent millions, there's something unusually genuine about it * * Daily Mail * * Frank, funny and often farcical, Sylvia Smith's first book has been hailed as a middle-aged answer to Sex and the City. This book is so deadpan, and the scenes she describes so extraordinarily ordinary, this is one of the most unusual you are likely to come across * * Sunday Express * *