Libby Purves

Laurie Graham: Life According to Lubka
Buzz Wexler is an old hand at the music PR business: Angry Belgians, Cheesy Boyz and Ear Waxx were all her babies. And for a woman who was forty last birthday she certainly keeps up the pace. But that's about to change.

Now some twenty year old has been given Wasabi Gymslip, the Japanese group predicted to go stellar and Buzz is being sidelined into something called World Music. It'll be a blast, her boss assures her.

The Gorni Grannies may not be the tantrum-throwing celebs Buzz is used to, but they present other challenges. How to stop Lubka straining yogurt through M&S knee highs; how to persuade Mara that Tail Waggers' Gravy Bones aren't intended for human consumption. Fuelled by copious shots of home-brewed plum raika, Buzz and Lubka address life's disappointments until the world tilts and the future beckons.

This novel explores the comic possibilities of culture clash and the unexpected friendship of two women whose lives are poles apart. Laurie Graham is a brilliant satirist who is also warm and life affirming.

Simon Doonan: Beautiful People
Simon Doonan's childhood was a curious mix of small town boredom and bright light city dreams. Growing up in a working class area of Reading with the mad-cap Doonan clan - Mother Betty, Father Terry, blind Aunt Phyllis, grandmother Narg and Grandfather D.C. - he yearned to get out and find the Beautiful People whom he imagined lived fabulous lives of glitz and glamour.

This is the story of how Simon eventually finds a way out and escapes to London with best friend Biddie Biddlecombe. Along the way they stumble upon punks, drunks, ladies of the night, the long arm of the law and all sorts of camps, vamps and outrageous scamps. But does he ever find the Beautiful People? Or could they be the ones he left behind...?

Russell Hoban: The Mouse and his Child
So begins the story of a tin father and son who dance under a Christmas tree until they break the ancient clockwork rules and are themselves broken. Thrown away, then rescued from a dustbin and repaired by a tramp, they set out on a dangerous quest for a family and a place of their own.