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  • Published: 7 November 2023
  • ISBN: 9780241523674
  • Imprint: Fig Tree
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $37.00

Good Material

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, FROM THE AUTHOR OF EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE




From the bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a sharply funny, beautifully observed and exquisitely relatable story of heartbreak and friendship, and how to survive both.

Every relationship has one beginning.
This one has two endings.

Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy.
And he can't work out why she stopped.

Now he is. . .
1. Without a home
2. Waiting for his stand-up career to take off
3. Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak at a time when everything he thought he knew about women, and flat-sharing, and his friendships has transformed beyond recognition, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of their broken relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him.

Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story.

From the bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a sharply funny, beautifully observed and exquisitely relatable story of heartbreak and friendship, and how to survive both.

  • Published: 7 November 2023
  • ISBN: 9780241523674
  • Imprint: Fig Tree
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $37.00

About the author

Dolly Alderton

Dolly Alderton is an award-winning author, screenwriter and journalist based in London. She is a columnist for The Sunday Times Style and has also written for GQ, Red, Marie Claire and Grazia. She is the former co-host and co-creator of the podcast The High Low. Her first book Everything I Know About Love became a top five Sunday Times bestseller in its first week of publication, won a National Book Award (UK) for Autobiography of the Year and was made into a BBC One TV Series. Ghosts, her first novel was published by Fig Tree in 2020. Dear Dolly, a collection of her agony aunt columns from the Sunday Times Style magazine, was also a Sunday Times bestseller.

Also by Dolly Alderton

See all

Praise for Good Material

Leaves you heartsore but happier. Irresistible

Richard E. Grant

Leaves you heartsore but happier. Irresistible

Richard E. Grant

Have you ever wondered what a lost love was thinking? In this ingeniously constructed and endlessly amusing novel, Dolly Alderton flips the script on everything we think we know about romantic loss, to bring us an unforgettable character on a deeply relatable downward spiral. Wise and relatable and pee-your-pants funny. I cried by page 5. Dolly Alderton is, quite simply, the bard of modern day love

Lena Dunham

Have you ever wondered what a lost love was thinking? In this ingeniously constructed and endlessly amusing novel, Dolly Alderton flips the script on everything we think we know about romantic loss, to bring us an unforgettable character on a deeply relatable downward spiral. Wise and relatable and pee-your-pants funny. I cried by page 5. Dolly Alderton is, quite simply, the bard of modern day love

Lena Dunham

A funny, tender novel about human relationships. By turns, laugh-out-loud, eye-roll relatable, and 'stop you in your tracks' heart-wrench. A thoroughly modern romantic masterpiece.

Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina

A funny, tender novel about human relationships. By turns, laugh-out-loud, eye-roll relatable, and 'stop you in your tracks' heart-wrench. A thoroughly modern romantic masterpiece.

Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina

WONDERFUL ... Shot through with Dolly's characteristic emotional intelligence ... Very funny ... Such a pleasure to read. I devoured it ... I award it 13/10 on my QWJ scale (stands for Queasy With Jealousy that I didn't write it)

Marian Keyes

WONDERFUL ... Shot through with Dolly's characteristic emotional intelligence ... Very funny ... Such a pleasure to read. I devoured it ... I award it 13/10 on my QWJ scale (stands for Queasy With Jealousy that I didn't write it)

Marian Keyes

Dolly Alderton just gets better and better. Good Material is both heartbreaking and hilarious with an ending that has you holding your breath. With the wit of Nick Hornby and the emotional scalpel of Nora Ephron, Alderton is one of our greats and this is sure to be an absolute classic

Emma Gannon

Dolly Alderton just gets better and better. Good Material is both heartbreaking and hilarious with an ending that has you holding your breath. With the wit of Nick Hornby and the emotional scalpel of Nora Ephron, Alderton is one of our greats and this is sure to be an absolute classic

Emma Gannon

The bestselling author brings her warmth, emotional intelligence and wry observation to bear on her second novel ... Refreshing

The Bookseller, Editor's Choice

The bestselling author brings her warmth, emotional intelligence and wry observation to bear on her second novel ... Refreshing

The Bookseller, Editor's Choice

This is the greatest. You’ll cry and laugh. I read it through the night. And I never, ever avoid sleep

Claudia Winkleman

This is the greatest. You’ll cry and laugh. I read it through the night. And I never, ever avoid sleep

Claudia Winkleman

Made me laugh while punching me in the gut. Loved this book

Aisling Bea

Made me laugh while punching me in the gut. Loved this book

Aisling Bea

Highly relatable for millennials navigating dating in London, and hugely insightful for those generations wanting to understand them. Packed with sharp observations and wisdom. A triumph

Sathnam Sanghera

Highly relatable for millennials navigating dating in London, and hugely insightful for those generations wanting to understand them. Packed with sharp observations and wisdom. A triumph

Sathnam Sanghera

I adored it! I ... Dolly is THE comic writer of our generation. This feels like her most ambitious book yet, and it delivers on every single page. She uses humour so brilliantly to underpin the quiet roar of romantic despair - this book is raw, smart and human. This makes me believe Dolly knows everything there is to know about love.

Daisy Buchanan

I adored it! I ... Dolly is THE comic writer of our generation. This feels like her most ambitious book yet, and it delivers on every single page. She uses humour so brilliantly to underpin the quiet roar of romantic despair - this book is raw, smart and human. This makes me believe Dolly knows everything there is to know about love.

Daisy Buchanan

It's so good. I loved it

Sharon Horgan

It's so good. I loved it

Sharon Horgan

Relatable, funny and refreshing

Elle

Relatable, funny and refreshing

Elle

Dolly Alderton is the Adele of writing

Esther Coren, The Spike

Dolly Alderton is the Adele of writing

Esther Coren, The Spike

A relatable, laugh-out-loud story of a thirtysomething failed comedian struggling with a break-up

Sunday Times Style

A relatable, laugh-out-loud story of a thirtysomething failed comedian struggling with a break-up

Sunday Times Style

[A] book to be devoured, adored, underlined, and passed on (but only to the friends you know will give it back) ... [Alderton] proves herself once again as having both a deep understanding of the intricacies of relationships and the ability to articulate it better than the majority of us ever could ...Good Material showcases Alderton’s knack for rich characterisation and zippy dialogue like never before ... Genuinely funny – if only more books made you laugh as much as this

The i

[A] book to be devoured, adored, underlined, and passed on (but only to the friends you know will give it back) ... [Alderton] proves herself once again as having both a deep understanding of the intricacies of relationships and the ability to articulate it better than the majority of us ever could ...Good Material showcases Alderton’s knack for rich characterisation and zippy dialogue like never before ... Genuinely funny – if only more books made you laugh as much as this

The i

Laugh-out-loud dialogue on every page ... No-one has a firmer grasp on the themes she explores. Good material, indeed

Sunday Express

Laugh-out-loud dialogue on every page ... No-one has a firmer grasp on the themes she explores. Good material, indeed

Sunday Express

Funny, sad and true; a book she has clearly poured her soul into ... Cements her status as a fiction heavyweight

inews, The best new books to read in November 2023

Funny, sad and true; a book she has clearly poured her soul into ... Cements her status as a fiction heavyweight

inews, The best new books to read in November 2023

If Dolly’s memoir Everything I Know About Love summed up being twentysomething then this, her second novel, is a tender and funny love letter to our tumultuous 30s

Red

If Dolly’s memoir Everything I Know About Love summed up being twentysomething then this, her second novel, is a tender and funny love letter to our tumultuous 30s

Red

Good Material combines Alderton’s wit and eye for detail with a beautiful depth of emotion

Woman & Home

Good Material combines Alderton’s wit and eye for detail with a beautiful depth of emotion

Woman & Home

All of Alderton's considerable gifts as a writer are on display here: her wit, her ability to capture exchanges that feel real, and her skilful characterisation ... Alderton's work truly shines when she writes about friendship

Sunday Independent

All of Alderton's considerable gifts as a writer are on display here: her wit, her ability to capture exchanges that feel real, and her skilful characterisation ... Alderton's work truly shines when she writes about friendship

Sunday Independent

Sharply written and acutely observed ... A beautifully nuanced portrayal of modern love that will have you racing to the last page

Heat

Sharply written and acutely observed ... A beautifully nuanced portrayal of modern love that will have you racing to the last page

Heat

Genuinely laugh-out-loud funny – with characters straight out of a Richard Curtis film – whipsmart dialogue and relatable millennial themes (Alderton’s forte) mean there’s never a dull moment ... Thought-provoking and wise

The Independent, Best New Books to Read This Autumn

Genuinely laugh-out-loud funny – with characters straight out of a Richard Curtis film – whipsmart dialogue and relatable millennial themes (Alderton’s forte) mean there’s never a dull moment ... Thought-provoking and wise

The Independent, Best New Books to Read This Autumn

Alderton entertains with observational quips about thirtysomething life ... There's a Hornby-esque charm to her well-meaning characters and their relatable dramas

The Observer

Alderton entertains with observational quips about thirtysomething life ... There's a Hornby-esque charm to her well-meaning characters and their relatable dramas

The Observer

Alderton is perceptive about how men deal (badly) with emotional pain

The Times

Alderton is perceptive about how men deal (badly) with emotional pain

The Times

Brilliantly observed Beautifully written, pacy and excellent on rejection, friendship and letting go. Fabulous

Daily Mail

Brilliantly observed Beautifully written, pacy and excellent on rejection, friendship and letting go. Fabulous

Daily Mail

The author of Everything I Know About Love nails the zeitgeist with a witty, relatable and acutely insightful page-turner about the trails and tribulations of the lovelorn

Daily Express

The author of Everything I Know About Love nails the zeitgeist with a witty, relatable and acutely insightful page-turner about the trails and tribulations of the lovelorn

Daily Express

Witty, warm and well-observed

Fabulous Magazine

Witty, warm and well-observed

Fabulous Magazine

With distinct notes of Helen Fielding, Richard Curtis and Nick Hornby ... Warm and generous ... A writer very much in control of her material

Guardian

With distinct notes of Helen Fielding, Richard Curtis and Nick Hornby ... Warm and generous ... A writer very much in control of her material

Guardian

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