Splash!: A Novel

by Stephen Glover

'I thoroughly enjoyed Splash! It's a delicious confection of excellent plotting, an inventively bonkers cast of characters, subtle insights into the world of newspapers and a satisfying ending which invokes the great Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece, Scoop . A fine comedy of manners by a writer who knows the media inside out' BEL MOONEY

Sam Blunt is a drunken, broken-down tabloid reporter, working for a once-mighty newspaper struggling to come to terms with the digital age.

With the assistance of Benedict, an earnest though clever wet-behind-the-ears young intern on the paper, Sam grapples to uncover the story of the century which reveals the political corruption and cynicism at the heart of a rotten Establishment.

As they try to nail the story amid a series of capers, Sam and Benedict are frustrated by the self-serving proprietor of the Daily Bugle, various self-appointed do-gooders who want to rein in the Press, and Trevor Yapp, the malign and untrustworthy editor of Bugle Online.

Splash! is a satire of the Press and politics in a modern London peopled by a Chinese billionaire would-be press proprietor, a worldly bishop, neglected immigrants, a corrupt and plaintive Prime Minister, and journalists who are often most interested in doing one another down.

Yet however self-serving newspapers may sometimes be, Sam and Benedict are ultimately on the side of the angels as they battle to write their triumphant story.

272 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 15, 2017

Reviews

[Stephen Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

You get the full UK tabloid cast of characters in this fun cynical read. It has good pace, plenty of plot, bonking, and reinforces just about every stereotype you are likely to have read about in your daily newsfeeds. The author sets himself quite a task to bring all the threads together and if there was any criticism from me it is the manufactured meeting between Mr Po and Sam Blunt that has to happen to set in train the denouement. Sam Happens to walking by Po's home and takes a chance to knock and Mr Po happens to be there focussed on the very matter Sam wishes to discuss, and his Maid happens to decide against her better judgement at the front door to talk to Mr Po who almost dismisses the Maid but for an almost forgotten reference to the individual that connects them . This is of course fiction and comedy so it doesn't matter that much, it's the sort of coincidence the movies serve up all the time, I just thought the author had done a great job of making the implausible plausible up to that point and I wanted a bit more magic. It felt like he ran out of ideas and needed to find a way to end it. Nonetheless, rated highly.

[Mark McDonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books which people who have established writing careers in other areas write and which gets good reviews from their chums, but in reality is a pretty dull, forgettable and uninteresting book. I got this as part of a ‘mystery book’ mailing, but I wouldn’t have chosen it proactively and I wouldn’t advise anyone to do so either.

[Denise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found this book fairly boring and also very slow moving. I had to keep checking how many pages were left to get through it, and was really unenthusiastic to read it. Should have just given up - the ending wasn't worth it.

[Maggie Bunting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good storytelling, well written and a good British comedy. Great fun to read with an underlying darkness that stops it from being superficial.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good! Again I didn't think I was going to like it but I actually enjoyed the story about politics, journalism and high society.

[Jacqui Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book to read for a change, set in the world of the tabloid press, but nothing special