Paula - She seems like a down-to-earth sort with common sense, though she also isn’t afraid to have fun. I admire the fact she manages to juggle a successful job with having five kids. She’s smart, professional and witty, with an Irish accent, which I always find myself warming to! I realised as I was reading the book, that I was enjoying all the scenes Paula featured in, as she elevated them further from their already high standard.

Steve - Dr Steve Hemmings is our main character, an advocate of Tony Blair and divorced 40 something man with two children, and a cat called Dalmy. His passions are for his work at BCG, his MP and his local cricket team, the Outcasts. We do get a good feeling for how this part of Steve’s life is going, and can have empathy, and indeed sympathy, for him. I did however feel that he needed to do more ‘growing up’ for a man in his 40s, and needed to get his head out of the clouds regarding his work ethic before it was too late regarding employment restructuring. We learned more about him as the book progressed, and readers should want to read until the shock ending.

Geoff - Geoff Huckstead is my memorable character, but I can’t say he’s my favourite. To be fair, in a satirical story such as this one, it would be difficult to pick a favourite, but Geoff certainly stands out. He is a confirmed bachelor who is of the opinion that women are to be used and abused, then dropped at a moment’s notice to attend to man business. Geoff is the ‘chairman’ of the local cricket team and full of his own self-importance. He lives with his mother whom he treats abominably, and is a bad influence on Dr Stephen Hemmings, the book’s main character. Geoff is a narcissistic, arrogant, rude, misogynistic, and all-round bad boy. He has no redeeming characteristics other than the fact that he is a man’s man and truly believes he has his friend’s back – when in reality, he most definitely does not.