The truth will set you free. Either that or it'll get you a punch in the nose.

Like all books that have that kind of momentum, it starts from word of mouth.

Radio football is football reduced to its lowest common denominator. Shorn of the game's aesthetic pleasures, or the comfort of a crowd that feels the same way as you, or the sense of security that you get when you see that your defenders and goalkeeper are more or less where they should be, all that is left is naked fear.

In other words, it's one of those books you thrust on your partner with an incredulous cry of "This is me!

One has so many more opinions about what has gone wrong than about what is perfect.

I'm still not a very good white wine, but I'm drinkable - you could put me in a punch, anyway.

But all three of them had had to lose things in order to gain other things. Will had lost his shell and his cool and his distance, and he felt scared and vulnerable, but he got to be with Rachel; and Fiona had lost a big chunk of Marcus, and she got to stay away from the casualty ward; and Marcus had lost himself, and got to walk home from school with his shoes on.