Wednesday 4 June 2014

Review: The Wrong Knickers: a decade of chaos - Bryony Gordon*


For years, women have been told that their twenties are their golden years, filled with fun, parties, sex and glamour. Countless TV shows and movies tell us the same story: this is your perfect decade - don't waste it! You'll never be so happy - or thin - again. 
Here, in her hilariously honest memoir, Bryony Gordon gives us a fresh perspective. Like Carrie Bradshaw, she may have had a column in a national newspaper, but her twenties weren't one long episode of Sex and the City, instead they were a decade of hangovers, heartbreak, and hideously awkward mornings-after, all over her overdraft limit.

Something a bit different on the blog today with a review of a memoir from Bryony Gordon,  a coloumnist for The Telegraph and one of the paper's best loved writers. As I'm sure we'll soon be hearing from everyone, Gordon has produced the Bridget Jones for the noughties with the added bonus that it is all hilariously true.

The Wrong Knickers covers Gordon's (mis)adventures over her twenties after she leaves university and seeks to live the glamourous, hedonistic life she's always been promised. Throughout her retelling Gordon slowly but surely bursts the bubble that we all clung to in our teens; that it would all be worth it one day when we were twenty-something, young, glorious and free. From the absolute hell of flat hunting in a capital city, to the disappointing lack of true love to be found the morning after, and revealing how expensive wine really is, you'll be pleasantly startled how often you relate to Gordon's experiences. Gordon recounts her tales with shocking honesty, making them all the more enjoyable and that touch more scandalous.

In my other much more boring academic life, I spend my days reading memoirs so I like to think I know what makes the difference between a good and a bad retelling of one's life. But let's be honest, we all know what makes the difference and that is a good, and enjoyable, writing style. Thankfully, and with no surprise, Gordon's narrative flows with unconscious ease and is shockingly addictive. The Wrong Knickers is definitely one to start when you've plenty of time and perhaps some privacy, unless you're ready to snort with laughter unattractively on a train full of people (let's not speak of it again).

Not a regular newspaper reader, Gordon was unknown to me until I read The Wrong Knickers and now I'm just wondering where the hell I've been. Gordon's memoir is a wonderfully refreshing and amusing interlude in my usual reading fare and it was nice to see the other side of all these glamorous life-styles we're so often presented with.

The Wrong Knickers is enjoyable, endearing, clever, and just that little bit naughty. A definite recommended read for anyone who's ever been twenty, thought they were going to meet the love of their life at 3am in a nightclub, and has ever felt that their twenties were miss-sold to them as the best years of their life.

*ARC received in return for an honest review, The Wrong Knickers is published by headline and is due for release on June 5th.

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