With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed

by Lynne Truss, Robert Bathurst (Narrator)

Here, in Lynne Truss' first novel, we meet Osborne Lonsdale, a down-at-heel journalist, mysteriously attractive to women, who writes a regular celebrity interview for Come Into the Garden . This week his Me and My Shed column will be based on the charming garden outhouse owned by TV sitcom star Angela Farmer. Unbeknownst to Osborne, driving down to Devon to interview Angela in her country retreat, the sleepy magazine has been taken over by new management. And so Osborne's research trip is interrupted by a trainload of anxious hacks from London-Lillian the fluffy blonde secretary, Michelle the sub-editor who has a secret crush on Osborne, and Trent Carmichael, crime novelist and bestselling author of S is for Secateurs !

Genres: Fiction, Humor

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Lynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England.

Reviews

[Rebecca]

I wasted my time reading 131 out of 210 pages, thinking the story surely had to pick up at some point. A faltering gardening magazine (“a miserable, inert place to work”) is about to be closed down, but Osborne only finds out when he’s already down in Devon doing the research for his regular “Me and My Shed” column with a TV actress. Hijinks are promised as the rest of the put-out staff descend on Honiton, but at nearly the two-thirds point it all still felt like preamble, laying out the characters and their backstories, connections and motivations. My favorite minor character was Makepeace, a pugnacious book reviewer who never meets a deadline and will argue anything with anyone – “he used his great capacities as a professional know-all as a perfectly acceptable substitute for either insight or style.”

(Fun passage about a cat: “Lester the cat, festooned with Post-it notes, made his way to the darkened kitchen, knocked a tin of Turkey Whiskas to the floor, and rolled it carefully with his nose and paws in the general direction of the living-room. If that stupid bastard fails to get the hint this time, he thought, I’ll scream.”)

[Lois Baron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly amusing, especially since I am a freelance magazine writer and editor. Terrific characters.

I listened to an audio book; the British narrator was great (except that his American characters sounded more like Australians).

Couldn't stop listening--I dragged the book with me from car to kitchen and back again. Usually I listen to one book in the car and a different one in the house.

[John Grinstead · Rating 1 out of 5]

This really is a bit lame. The construct and characterisation is very reminiscent of Tom Sharpe but not nearly as clever. The farce reaches Brian Rix proportions whilst Truss' personal predilection for grammatically correct English is ever present and one cannot but help identify Michelle as her alter ego...although clearly I cannot comment on her association with the pitch fork thing! This would probably serve as a piece of lightweight escapism on holiday but you'd probably crack it on the flight. Happily, Truss has come on as a writer but this does not rate as her finest hour.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is light, quirky, and hilarious, with the characters bordering on the ridiculous. I enjoyed it because it was an excellent break from reading serious, thought-provoking books, a bit like cleansing one's palate.

[Jonkers Jonkers · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable and amusing read with some genuinely funny parts. Quite farcical with lots of misunderstandings and confusion. Whilst not in the same league as P.G Wodehouse (but then, who is?) I would recommend this as a fun, light read.

[Madiha Rafi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lynne Truss loves words and loves crafting them into gorgeous sentences that conjure up characters and plot .That's my first impression of the book. A fun and light read, where the real pleasure is the actual prose( I hope that makes sense) .

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I searched the Library catalog for books narrated by Robert Bathurst & discovered this one. It was light, quirky & funny at times.

[Hunted Snark · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.95 stars
out in the shed, with some cupcakes

Dear Future Me,

Remember reading this one back in about '05?
Of course, it was Eats-shoots-and-leaves-mania, and you were studying editing skills, so it was all very something or other when it popped up at Borders. Cor, remember Borders? Happy days ... no, wait, this is going all sepia-toned...

Okay: I reread this one because I'd just read Psycho by the Sea, and i wanted to compare. Firstly, Psycho is a muuuch more assured piece of writing, especially in the plotting and pacing.

But this was her first novel, so be nice.

Well, you have to give Truss marks for consistency. Most of the elements in Psycho by the sea are there in this one, written over 25 years earlier:
* large cast of grotesquely eccentric characters
* omniscient voice
* author's commentary probably the most amusing aspect of the whole thing
* complex, multi-strand plot with rapid POV shifts
* outrageously unlikely happenings and coincidences
* a sense of humour that doesn't quite work for me

The plot was a brave try at something complex and interwoven, but the wheels came off around two thirds in. We ended up with numerous questions unanswered and strands that could have connected just not quite meeting up. So it felt like a fabulous setup for ... nothing much in the end.
Come to think, I can't even recall what the climax actually was.

Good farce is difficult to pull off. This was nearly there in some ways, but really not in others.
It probably needed a damned good structural edit—which is ironic for a book by someone who started as a 'literary editor' according to the blurb.

... or was she actually a line editor? There's quite a difference.

...

In other news, I somehow managed to recall that there was a gay subplot.
There really wasn't. There was a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' moment.
*tch*
amazing what our mind latches onto, future me.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually laugh-out-loud funny in a few places, and was a merry chase of a book. On the other hand, it had rather more profanity than I would have liked, and some of the characters were rather unpleasant. None the less, I enjoyed the majority of it, and will read more by Lynne Truss. As a technical writer and editor, I particularly like her inclusion of characters who are sticklers for grammar and punctuation. This is much in keeping with her Eats, Shoots and Leaves book. Overall, an enjoyable read.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing tale featuring a range of quirky & eccentric characters, (take Lillian for example, a secretary who can't touch envelopes!) which sets the stage for a whole series of misunderstandings...& disasters.

To me, the story had a farcical feel to it....just the sort of thing our local Amateur Dramatics might put on - good fun & certainly not to be taken seriously!

[G L · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful book. I think it would have been funny even if I had been reading it in black and white, but Robert Bathurst has done such a good job voicing the characters that I could not stop laughing. In fact, Bathurst's reading is probably the best audio book performance I have ever heard.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read a few other Lynn Truss books and enjoyed them OK, but this was just too ‘rollicking’ for me. I wasn’t engaged by the plot, now and then I was interested in a scene and thought I was getting hooked but the silliness just was not holding me. I skimmed, hoping to get that drawn in feeling but no.

[Jennifer Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read Lynne Truss' grammar books which I enjoyed, being somewhat of a grammar nerd. However she should stick with the non-fiction, this didn't really have much of a plot, is somewhat of a farce, and not that enjoyable.

[Lana. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ridiculous plot where comedic coincidences lead a bunch of extreme characters into an unlikely confrontation. Normally, this is not my kind of story, but Truss's wit shines through, making the book overall an entertaining read.

[Jan Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and silly British farce. My favorite character is Angela Farmer and she is super funny in the epilog. It is a book of no consequence but it does not need to be. Reading is supposed to be enjoyable.

[Lisa van Zyl-Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a bit too odd. Nothing real enough to relate to, but fun and imaginative nevertheless.

[Dorian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was turned off by the excessive language, although I liked the weaving together of characters.

[Vivien · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really silly farce but very funny and enjoyable. Also all the grammar etc perfect!

[Sam Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this would have worked better as a stage play. Everything seemed to happen off stage left.

[Birgit Bramwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This ranks as one of the top five most entertaining reads of my life. I haven’t laughed this much in ages - thoroughly enjoyed every word!

[Chrissy Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hilariously absurd murder mystery set around the closure of a gardening magazine.
An easy, light-hearted read for fans of Eats Shoots and Leaves.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good fun and worthy of your time.

[Pip Snort · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought it would be funny, but it wasn't.

One star for sound grammar.

[Mary Buzard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A full-on, very funny, farce.

[Val Penny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lynne Truss was born in England on 31 May 1955. She is a writer, journalist, and broadcaster. She started out as a literary editor but got sidetracked. Truss is the author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas. She spent six years as the television critic of The Times in London, followed by four years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper.

Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash which was a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. Truss lives in Brighton, England. Her best known book is entitled Eats Shoots and Leaves.

This book, With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed,.is an old-fashioned farce, in the classic tradition, set in relatively modern-day England. It is meant to be funny but I cannot say I found it very amusing.

I appreciated some of the literary conceits, for example, at the end, when Truss uses an outside character to resolve a recurring plot point, but acknowledges the cheat openly by having one of the main characters ask that outside character, “Sir, have you ever heard the theatrical expression deus ex machina?”

However, I found the book really is a bit lame. The construct and characterisation is very reminiscent of Tom Sharpe but not nearly as clever. The farce reaches extreme proportions whilst the author’s personal predilection for grammatically correct English is ever present. You cannot but help identify the character Michelle as her alter ego.

The book was undemanding and would probably serve as a piece of lightweight escapism on holiday. However, I think I would probably leave it in my hotel rather than carry it home again.

[Cupcakencorset · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short comic novel by the author of “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” is a hoot! It’s an old-fashioned farce, mostly in the classic tradition, set in relatively modern-day England. I loved the literary “smirk” that I sensed in this piece, for example, at the end, when Truss uses an outside character to resolve a recurring plot point, but acknowledges the cheat openly by having one of the main characters ask that outside character, “Sir, have you ever heard the theatrical expression deus ex machina?” Highly recommended.

[Alison Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lynne Truss writes extremely well, but this book was very disappointing. It was supposed to be terribly funny, but came across as trying much too hard, and therefore was rather silly, and not particularly amusing. An obscure gardening magazine is facing closure and the journalists and editors all end up in the same place in the country. There is a murder, although why is never really clear, and various people have sex, but it's all terribly contrived and rather dull. Don't bother.

[Aletha Tavares · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is even more wittier than the Eats, shoots and leaves. The characters are great, the humor excellent upper lip stuff, and the language just so elegant that it leaves me wanting to start rereading it all over again- its style is so much better than Eats, shoots and leaves, that she is someone whose style of writing I surely wish to absorb in like a sponge.

[David Grieve]

Funny in parts but certainly not a great comic novel. Relies far too heavily on coincidences. I don't mind suspending disbelief, but not to that extent. Almost all the characters present extreme versions of human characteristics so when this is added to the coincidences it comes across as being over-reliant on device rather than plot or dialogue.

[PM · Rating 1 out of 5]

i'm not sure if i did not get the humor because the book has a significant amount of hype around it but i just did not find it funny enough. there are bits of wit and humor but it did not go all the way through. click this link for my complete review: http://prinsesamusang.wordpress.com/2...