Instructions For Living Someone Else's Life

Book excerpt: The new novel from the bestselling author of THINGS MY GIRLFRIEND AND I HAVE ARGUED ABOUT. Chris is 25. He has a job in advertising he despises - despite being naturally brilliant at creating shamelessly successful campaigns - an 'artistic' girlfriend, and his two best mates from university, who spend a lot of time playing pool, drinking Grolsch and quoting lines from Robocop at each other. But Chris's life is about to change. The eighties are coming to an end and he must take decisive action if he is to fulfil what he suspects is his true potential. So, after pre-emptively celebrating the fact he is about to hand in his resignation, Chris goes to bed drunk in 1988 but very unexpectedly wakes up in 2006, with an unbelievable hangover, a long-suffering (and worryingly 'old'-looking) stranger for a wife, a life that hasn't turned out the way he had hoped for at all, and an unnerving amount of new body hair...