One Day by David Nicholls

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Blurb:
‘I can imagine you at forty,’ she said, a hint of malice in her voice. ‘I can picture it right now.’
He smiled without opening his eyes. ‘Go on then.’
15th July 1988. Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.
So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year which follows?
One Day is a funny/sad love story spanning twenty years, a book about growing up – how we change, how we stay the same.

David Nicholls is a British author, before One Day I had never heard of him before, he has also written Starter for Ten in 2003 and The Understudy in 2005. He originally wanted to pursue a career as an actor, after training in New York. He worked sporadically for an 8 year period before he got into writing for television and film. He is currently working on his fourth novel and lives with his family in North London.

A funny novel about two friends, the story is told on the same day, 15th July every year for two decades. Emma Morley is from Yorkshire from a working class family, lacking in some confidence and then there is Dexter Mayhew who is overly confident, comes from a very privileged background with his family home in the Cotswolds.

The concept is great, they first meet in 1988 on the last day at university in Edinburgh, where they spend the night together then you follow their friendship on the same day each year. Sometimes the friendship is great they are both getting what they want from the relationship and other times it’s not so great. After the first night they both go their separate ways but still keeping in contact, Emma gets a job in a Mexican restaurant and Dexter goes travelling. I felt for Emma she had work hard at everything, her jobs and their friendship, where on the other hand Dexter seemed to have it easy, lots of one night stands, not needing to work and falling into a career as a television presenter.

For me the book worked on every level, I loved the concept and I felt like I was catching up with old friends, I loved both Emma and Dexter and the chemistry of their relationship. The writing style reminded me of Tony Parsons, genuine dilemmas. I sometimes felt parts were too “wordy” and felt you could miss parts out and not miss any of the story, but overall a great book which I would highly recommend.



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