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Humor novel set in an ad agency in the year 2000, told entirely through company emails.

The parts about work, including creative collaboration, backstabbing, office personalities, and power struggles are absolutely hilarious. Really great sense of comic timing and a fine use of language and tone for spot-on characterization.

What's not so hilarious is how casually we used to enjoy cheap laughs about people's age, weight, personal appearance, bra size, and sexual orientation. I wish that were satire, too, but I don't think so. It's mainstream humor from that historical era. Just go back and watch almost any sitcom from the 90s and I guarantee you'll be surprised by what people used to feel comfortable laughing at.

This is one of the best novels I have read in recent times. Like many of the other reviewers, I was wary of the fact that the book is written entirely as a series of inter-company e-mails. However, Beaumont pulls it off fantastically.

The key element to the humor is the duplicitous nature of the main characters. In the personal e-mails to each other, we see what they really think, and in the business e-mails, and to contrast, the business e-mails are all brown-nosing and have the forced quality of many official e-mails.
There also several running jokes, such as the agency president's e-mails getting diverted to the Finnish office, and the many amorous liaisons among the underlings.

What I found surprising that Beaumont was able to flesh show more out the characters so well. Every one of the characters has a unique voice and as the book progressed, I found myself cheering when something bad happened to Simon, the conniving creative director.

I whole-heartedly recommend this book to all. show less

This was a blast of a read. We join the advertising agency of Miller Shanks in the dawn of a new millenium, and follow the various staff members during the month of January as they chase a pitch for Coke. The novel is told entirely in the form of emails between the various characters.

The style of the book creates an extremely fast, easy read which is exceptionally hard to put down. Once you have got each character straight in your mind, you are able to zip through the emails.

For anyone who works in an office, it is easy to see each stereotypical character in your own workplace - particularly Ken Perry (the office administrator who believes he is in charge of the entire building) and Nigel (the creep who works in accounts and sends out show more company-wide emails trying to sell various undesirable items).

It really surprised me that Beaumont was able to create such strong characters while using the format he did. Even though there was no narration as such, each character came across extremely effectively. While hating them, I loved reading the emails between Simon Horne and his PA Susi - extremely funny.

In fact, the whole novel (while not laugh-out-loud) was very amusing and I read it with a smile on my face. The office politics, back-stabbing, office romances - everything was very familiar and hence a joy to read about.

In fact, my only real complaint comes from the sheer amount of swearing on display. Sure, it made a lot of the gossipy emails much more realistic, and I reckon advertising agencies do use that sort of language, but it was pretty relentless - especially with some of the wide-boy characters writing to each other.

Altogether, though, I would recommend this book as a nice little interlude between more serious and worthy novels. It was easy to read, very funny and had a happy ending! show less

This story is told entirely in emails flying around an advertising agency in London. It's hilarious. I've worked in offices with electronic mail since before the Internet and have often thought there was a story there. Beaumont does a great job.

Laugh out loud funny epistolatory novel that uses email to deliver rapidfire mockery of office politics, office romances, and 21st century marketing.

A truly hilarious novel set in the London branch of a fictional international advertising company staffed by all the disfunctional incompetents you could ask for. A reader who's ever worked in the industry, however briefly, will readily recognise this cast of characters. Anyone who's ever worked anywhere will recognise the "sad git in accounts".

I find the story funny and the e-mail format makes the narrative more gripping. Yet I'm afraid it feels to much like an inside joke for advertising people.