Verity Bell has very big eyes, alphabetical leanings and a look that says she'd like to get inside your brain somehow. Or so her best friend Sally tells her, confessing that back at their school, most children thought she was a witch. Sally, a fellow only-child to whom Verity has been glued since girlhood, has become a worry in her twenties because she has actually allowed a married man to set her up in a flat to be his mistress. Verity sees no correlation whatsoever between this retrograde and fairly shocking love-nest and her own transforming passion for a married man called John, who surely yearns to leave his wife and three children to be with her. Doesn't he? Verity lives in a world of her own and we glimpse her grudges (from 'ants' to the 'zeitgeist'), her personal development (from 'ambition' to 'wobbling') and her idiosyncratic network of obsessions (pick a letter, any letter) in a narrative arranged alphabetically by topics in the most curious and satisfying way.
Something Beginning With
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Review
‘An innocent eccentric, Verity is an engaging narrator, and this is a charming, sweet and strange book’ -- Image
‘Both hilarious and heart-warming … original and captivating’ -- Red Magazine
‘Delightfully original … Charming and darkly funny’ -- Marie Claire
‘Salway wraps her bright, comic writing in bite-sized chunks that make this first novel an easy-reading pleasure’ -- Publishers Weekly
‘Something Beginning With is quirky and funny, but also surprisingly poignant’ -- Daily Mail
‘Both hilarious and heart-warming … original and captivating’ -- Red Magazine
‘Delightfully original … Charming and darkly funny’ -- Marie Claire
‘Salway wraps her bright, comic writing in bite-sized chunks that make this first novel an easy-reading pleasure’ -- Publishers Weekly
‘Something Beginning With is quirky and funny, but also surprisingly poignant’ -- Daily Mail
About the Author
Sarah Salway lives in Kent with her husband and two children and is a prize-winning short-story writer and poet. This is her first novel.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Emmsy
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book's a bit like the tardis; it looks like an innocent, light read from the outside, but inside it's packed with mind-expanding ideas and quirky features. The voice is really engaging and the structure clever and daring. While it's possible to read 'Something beginnning With' in one sitting, the themes and questions Sarah Salway raises stay with you for a long time afterwards.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I do not often read a book in one sitting but 'Something Beginning with...' demands to be read in one luscious mouthful. It is curiously addictive, and for me the pages turned in rapid succession. Verity, the twenty-something writer of this lexicon, which also has a diary-like feel, is an entertaining narrator who is well-practised in self-delusion. The problems she encounters are solved with originality and verve and her astute observations of life around her are sometimes amusing and sometimes very poignant. As well as relating a highly satisfying tale Verity (or rather Sarah Salway) also manages to incorporate some surprising and interesting facts e.g. how Japanese mothers terminate breastfeeding (see w: withdrawal). This is a lively contemporary story of the meaning of love and loss and I look forward to reading more from this writer.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Audrey Moore
Format:Hardcover
This is one of the finest books I have read in a while; I loved it. It is miles ahead of all other chick lit out there, because apart from being entertaining, funny and utterly engaging, this novel is also insightful, touching, and beautifully written. Written in alphabetical glossary entries, each short section tells its own story, and the vignettes add up to a lovely book that is as smart as it is sweet. I would highly recommend this one to anyone, not just "chicks". There is really nothing out there quite like it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One you'll go back to .... again and again
Sarah Salway captures the darker side of relationships in a highly innovative form. I read this book in the conventional way, from beginning to end. Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2010 by Kathryn
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Perfect Travelling Companion
In its new format, Something Beginning With makes even the most tedious journey entertaining. I loved the book as a hardback (indeed, it was a Book Club choice) and am thrilled... Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2010 by Barbara
4.0 out of 5 stars
An old story told in a new way
Very clever structure to this book. The narrative develops subject by subject, alphabetically, and there are cross-references to other sections. Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2010 by medwaymaria
5.0 out of 5 stars
Witty, obliquely dark and a keeper ...
When I first read this book I had no idea what it was - even now, I struggle to explain it to others. Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2010 by Kay Sexton
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting concept
This is an interesting concept for a book, and I enjoyed reading it very much. The story is told by Verity Bell, a 24 year old who seems at odds with her own life at times. Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2009 by Nicola
4.0 out of 5 stars
A young woman's A-Z of relationships
At first glance you might write this book off as chicklit with a gimmick - for it is written in an A to Z format with entries under key words and phrases. Read more
Published on 5 July 2009 by Annabel Gaskell
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read beneath the surface...
This book was published in the US as The ABCs of Love. Whatever the name, it's not an easy book to describe. Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2008 by Michelle Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasure from A to Z
This is one of the finest books I have read in a while; I loved it. It is miles ahead of all other chick lit out there, because apart from being entertaining, funny and utterly... Read more
Published on 5 May 2004 by Audrey Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasure from A to Z
This is one of the finest books I have read in a while; I loved it. It ismiles ahead of all other chick lit out there, because apart from beingentertaining and funny and utterly... Read more
Published on 28 April 2004 by Audrey Moore
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