The Giles Wareing Haters' Club

by Tim Dowling

Giles Wareing has started telling people he's forty, even though he's actually thirty-nine years and eleven months. It's supposed to help him conquer the fear, but in fact he has only given the fear a four-week head start. Giles is a freelance writer of amusing articles for a national newspaper. One day, feeling particularly fortyish, he happens to type 'Giles Wareing+unfunny' into a search engine. And that's when he discovers the thread. The thread is called 'The Giles Wareing Haters' Club', and is entirely devoted to holding everything he has ever written up to excoriating criticism and ridicule.As Giles becomes obsessed with the thread, with tracking down its participants, his angst begins to focus on one particularly scornful contributor, and it soon becomes clear that things are going really quite badly wrong . . .A tragedy, a farce and a detective story, "The Giles Wareing Haters' Club" is an absorbing, hilarious and razor-sharp look at the modern male in all his dysfunctional glory.'Entertaining and unexpectedly poignant' "Times Literary Supplement"'Very funny . . .Cringe comedy at its best' "GQ"'An acerbically dry and hilarious tale' "InStyle "

Genres: Humor, Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published May 23, 2007

Reviews

[Rachel Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2007, Tim Dowling took over writing the Saturday column from Jon Ronson and has mined his family for content ever since, surviving changes of editor at the Saturday Guardian and even the end of the Weekend magazine. The first half of this book is much the same thing: he writes about domestic animals (only the tortoise and snake missing), domestic quibbles, domestic appliances, children (only the youngest is missing), and that is absolutely fine by me, given that his column is the first thing I turn to of a Saturday.

The second half is more: what if a journalist had a midlife crisis-cum-breakdown? The plot is that Tim a.k.a Giles joins an online forum dedicated to monstering all of his Guardian (“the paper”) articles in order to defend himself, then he hunts the members down, in the meantime chasing after an attractive neighbour and misusing (non) prescription drugs, whilst neglecting his wife and sons. For my money, it's better than the likes of Hornby or Nicholls.

For the true Dowlingistas there’re a couple of Easter eggs: Giles's online persona is called Robert (Tim’s real name) and Giles shaves a year off his online age, saying he was born in 1965 rather than '64, which is what Tim (b. 1963) has done in this novel also.

[Poetreehugger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed.
Enjoyable for its humorous take on family life, and it’s touching yet humorous look at midlife crisis and aging. Then, the book's glance at chat groups, online comment posting and the ease with which people put on invented personas, certainly gives one food for thought.
I enjoy the pithy little visual details that so perfectly set the scene so often. Finally finding a key, on a window sill next to “…a dead rosemary cutting in an egg up.” P. 63. Yep, vivid.
And the gently depressed pessimism. “The world sours deliberately, to make you mind leaving it less.” P. 380.
On the glass half full or half empty issue: “What use is boneheaded optimism in the face of bleak inevitability?” P. 216. Hilarious.

[Marcia Mackey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it.

Big fan of Tim Dowling and this didn't disappoint. Wry, intelligent, humane and, of course, trademark self deprecating. Could have done without the pseudo copy of articles. I actually skipped a couple of those....

[Sherry Chiger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd hesitated before buying this because, even though I enjoy Dowling's column in the Guardian Weekend magazine, I'm not a big fan of whimsical, humourous novels. But while The Giles Wareing Haters' Club is funny, and at times a bit too whimsical for my liking, its depth and heart surprised me. By the end of the book, I was unexpectedly moved by Giles's dilemma and found myself relating to this hapless, at times infuriating character. If you're a fan of Nick Hornsby, you'll enjoy this. In fact, it's the book that Hornsby's How to Be Good should have been.

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent enough quick read; concerning a journalist who has something of a mid-life crisis and decides to track down the people who write rude things about him on a discussion board. It's okay, but not particularly funny, insightful, or anything else really. In order to avoid a possible stalking thing I won't end this review using the words Tim Dowling + unfunny. But really, it wasn't.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great idea for a book, love the sarcasm and the twists and turns. A bit boring in parts that I felt could have been cut. Other than that - funtastic read!

[Gitta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Present from MJ.
Perfect read for a long bank holiday weekend.