Number Ten

A quirky and unusual novel about an unloved British Prime Minister who decides to dress in drag and tour the country to get an idea of the realities the common man faces.

It's a weird storyline full of weird characters, odd situations and strange sub plots but somehow it all works and is quite an interesting book (maybe because it is so weird), unfortunately the overall enjoyment is somewhat tarnished by the rather abrupt ending.

Humorous story about the Prime Minister thinking he has lost touch with the British Public (sounds familiar?) embarking on a tour of the UK in disguise to find out what people really think. Interesting premise, great story, easy to read and very funny.

This is supposedly satirical, considered 'hilarious' by early reviewers. I found it rather tedious, very dated, and almost entirely unamusing. There are highly caricatured characters, including a ridiculous prime minister (apparently based on Tony Blair, though I had not recognised him as such). The Prime Minister is out of touch with ordinary people in the UK, so he dresses as a woman and travels around incognito with a policeman with the unlikely name of Jack Sprat.

Jack is the only reasonable and three-dimensional person in the book, at least he is until he falls in love with someone he's only just met, who seems to be a most unappealing woman. I kept reading, as the pace is fairly good, and I wondered if it would get better. It show more really didn't. I found it depressing and rather sordid, on the whole.

But don't take my word for it; this is a popular book by a much-loved author, although I didn't like other books of hers when I read them some decades ago.

Longer review: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/number-ten-by-sue-townsend.html show less

Totally enjoyable Labour government bashing silliness. The satire is a little too broad to be totally satisfying but it's a fun romp of a read and just close enough to reality to be borderline plausible. Ish.

This book tells about Edward Clare and Jack Sprat, beginning with their childhood days. Edward’s mother dies when he’s only a boy. Jack Sprat comes from an extremely poor and disreputable family.

Edward becomes Prime Minister while Jack Sprat becomes a constable who works at 10. Downing Street, guarding him.

Edward’s wife, Adele, is highly intelligent and easily recognizable by her extraordinarily large nose. Edward is captivated by Adele’s “magnificent” nose. Unfortunately, she hears voices, on which psychotropic drugs have no effect.

Jack’s father and step-father were criminal and his brother Stuart had died of drugs.

Edward, as P.M., lives an upper-class life, while Jack’s Mum lives in a mess and neglects the poor budgie, show more Pete. Jack engages a young man, James, to take care of his mother and clean the house.

Edward decides he needs a break and he and Jack go off together to “see Britain in a week”, travelling by public transport. Jack acts as Edward’s escort. Since Edward’s face is so recognizable, he dresses as a woman, borrowing his wife Adele’s clothes and her wig; he is now Edwina. Edward applies “Pan stik”, whatever that is, lipstick and eye make-up to his face, so even Adele would not have recognized him.

We shift between following Edward and Jack on their tour of Britain, and Jack’s Mum, Norma, and her home help, James. Norma and James are now smoking marijuana, and James is flipping out.

Jack was so bright and precocious that when he was a child Norma couldn’t understand a word of the conversation between him and his brainy friends. She sometimes wondered if Jack was “quite right in the head”.

The PM buys a Marilyn Monroe wig and becomes a dishy blonde, though his disguise is not as convincing when the bristles on his face begin to appear.

Meanwhile, at home Adele stops taking her medicine. A man called Barry’s leg is being amputated and she is preoccupied with seeing to it that it gets an appropriate funeral. She also believes that warts are “holy” and should be accorded the same respect.

On his trip the PM gets to talk with the common people and sees the deplorable state the nation is in. At one point Edward has cause to be admitted to the casualty department of a hospital suspected of having a heart attack (with alarming symptoms he often has). There he gets the chance to see how ordinary Brits having acute health crises are treated. They need a trolley for Edward but none of the staff can find one, but Jack dons a white coat and soon finds two.

During the trip Edward visits Edinburgh, where he lived as a child, visits his sister and makes new discoveries about himself and who his real father is. Things are happening at Ten Downing Street too.

At one point Edward and Jack visit Jack’s Mum, Norma, and James.

“James said, ‘Where were you educated?’

‘At Cambridge,’ said the Prime Minister, lowering his eyes modestly.

‘Well, it ain’t done you much good, has it?’ said James. ‘Look at the state you’re in. You ain’t a man, you ain’t a woman, you ain’t no class, what are you?

The Prime Minister adjusted his wig and ran a hand over his bristly chin.’”

Like Sue Townsend’s other works, this is a hilarious book, critically appraising the British and their country. I didn’t quite understand the point of the ending – perhaps it meant that freedom is dangerous. show less

From the author of the Adrian Mole Diaries comes this hilarious book about the Prime Minister trying to get in touch with his people by coming out in public dressed as a woman. There are depressing moments when you realize that the PM has no clue of the real world anymore, and the normal problems of the common people sometimes just did not sink in with him. He always replied with a governmental solution, and I am sure England being like the US, we know sometimes they just do not work. But overall, the book was a fun read, a great collection of weird characters along the way. I recommend this book as a fun quick read.

I really enjoyed Townsend's Adrian Mole series, but this title did not live up to that standard. Although parts of it were laugh out loud funny, the writing was very inconsistent, and the multiple story lines passed the line of credulity.

In short, Number Ten is about not only the UK Prime Minister at Number Ten Downing Street but also his police escort, Jack Sprat (I'm sorry, she couldn't come up with a better name???) who grew up at a Number Ten address on another street. The two of them attempt to travel the UK, in cognito, to show the PM what the country is really like.

Without any spoilers, I will simply say their attempts of "in cognito" were unnecessarily ridiculous, and the descriptions of commonwealth life drifted too far into show more satire for this Yank to understand.

Not a bad book, and there were enough humorous parts to string the entire story together, but I expected more from the wit behind Adrian Mole. show less