Others have reviewed this with far more flair, so I will keep it brief and agree with those who, while they enjoyed the book, don't think it is one of Trollope's best works.

Although I found it easy to relate to the characters, I didn't really care about them. Sympathetic characters are usually one of Trollope's strengths, but I guess you can't win 'em all. ( )

Recently I saw Joanna Trollope talk about her latest novel Friday Nights. She was a great speaker and we had fun listening to her talk about her new experiences in researching for this book, and I had no hesitation in getting a signed copy.

Now I've read the book, and while it was enjoyable I don't think it's her best (although I've only read a couple of other earlier ones). It examines women's friendship as a another facet of extended families.

A group of rather different women (and their children) get together regularly on Friday nights for companionship and support. Eleanor, the spinster matriarch oversees - she started it all off when she asked two young mums, Paula and Lindsay, that she saw through her window always hurrying with the pushchair, but never talking to each other if they'd like her to babysit. Paula is an ex-mistress who was dropped when she got pregnant, but is kept in some style by her son Toby's father; Lindsay is a young widow with a young son and a younger sister Jules who wants to be a top club DJ. Then there's Blaise (honestly!) and her business partner Karen; Blaise is a single workaholic - Eleanor sees her younger self in her; Karen is an accountant, married to wastrel artist Lucas, with two kids. So that's the group. Then Paula stirs things up by meeting the enigmatic Jackson and introduces him to everyone. Things are going to change...

Jackson is a true catalyst for change, in that a catalyst is added to a reaction, speeds it up, but remains unchanged itself. He's good-looking, appears to be interested in everyone, appears to be considerate, but when asked to do more once things have started to change says 'I don't do that, (babe)'. We are always wondering about him and what his motives are, unlike in Muriel Spark's superb short novel The Ballad of Peckham Rye, where a young man arrives in a staid area of South London, stirs things up and leaves, but we do engage with him. In Spark's novel, the story is told mostly from her catalyst's perspective, but we never get that from Jackson at all. His involvement is told entirely from the others' viewpoints, and that made him definitely a bit creepy in my view.

Much is made in the book of Jules' transformation into an up and coming club DJ, and young Toby's introduction to the joys(!) of soccer - both areas in which the author had to do some serious research. This makes for some rather clunky dialogue for Jules in particular for although she is a likeable young thing, the world of clubs doesn't sit well with the rest of the novel.

I found it an OK read, however the evening with Joanna Trollope I went to was special and I shall keep the book for memories of that. ( )

Eleanor befriends 2 young women she sees walking everyday with their children. They start meeting every Friday night. Eventually a few others join. During the Friday meetings they discuss life happenings and then one Friday Night meeting Paula asks to bring a male friend and everything changes.
The story itself was not bad but I wish the author would not keep alternating between characters. For example 2 characters would be having a conservation and the author would automatically switch to 2 other characters. It was kind of hard to follow at times. ( )

It's about a group of women who have been meeting on Friday nights to share their lives. They are in different stages of life - single mothers, one married woman, employed, unemployed, young and old. One of them brings a man she is dating to one of the evenings so her friends can meet him. His presence in their lives stimulates different feelings and, possibly as a result, changes in their lives. ( )

i am totally blank on this