Bilton

by Andrew Martin

Adrian Day and Martyn Bilton are two young journalists adrift in the "New Globe", Britain's biggest newspaper. After The Incident (involving a cup of coffee, the Prime Minister, and the exploitation of the working class) an explosion of hype threatens to blow Bilton onto a much larger stage.

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Andrew Martin (born 6 July 1962) is an English novelist and journalist.

Martin was brought up in Yorkshire, studied at the University of Oxford and qualified as a barrister. He has since worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications while writing novels, starting with Bilton, a comic novel about journalists, and The Bobby Dazzlers, a comic novel set in the North of England, for which he was named Spectator Young Writer of the Year. His series of detective novels about Jim Stringer, a railwayman reassigned to the North Eastern Railway Police in Edwardian England, includes The Necropolis Railway, The Blackpool Highflyer, The Lost Luggage Porter, Murder at Deviation Junction and Death on a Branch Line. He has also written the non-fiction book; How to Get Things Really Flat: A Man's Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts.

Reviews

[Jez Latham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. I think the genre of satire is dead [or has morphed into something completely different] but nevertheless the gags about our media saturated society were well thought out, and there was just enough to the plot to keep me interested. Not the sort of book I have read in a long time, so a refreshing change. Really worth 3 and a half stars but either it wont do that or I am not very adept with a mouse.

[Nickie · Rating 2 out of 5]

No doubt the cover of this book says things like "hilarious", "biting satire", "i laughed so much at something that was genuinely funny, then looked back at this book and thought that it had generated the laughter". But I didn't read it with the dust jacket on, so I can't confirm.

It's funny enough, not laugh out, but it has its moments. Its satire of governmental politics, Marxism, the media is fairly good, but not as good as it should be. It's pretty average across the board. Like a Private Eye article that would work well over half a page, but not quite so well over an entire novel.

This is the third 2-star book I've read in a couple of weeks, and that's not including the book I started reading this week and binned after one tube journey.

[Jonathan Norton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jolly little media sature from the 90s. Has some decent gags in it, and I suppose you could say it was still relevant (in the way that "The Day Today" still is - the character of Bilton himself is like a fusion of Chris Morris and Nick Cohen), but it's a bit pleased with itself, and nowhere near being a modern-day "Scoop".

[Ipswichblade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an interesting read The book was published in 1998 but was ahead of the game with stupid levels of celebrity culture

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite good fun, if a little insubstantial book about the media. like withnail & i transported into modern fleet street.

[Bicefalus · Rating 4 out of 5]

della trama di questo libro ricordo poco ... so solo che mi era piaciuto e che l'ho finito su untrenino scalchignato della costa zzurra circodandato da bione valchierie bruciacchiate dal sole

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly moving. Bilton is going to stick in my memory forever, instantly one of my favourite characters in all media