Lucky Break, By Esther Freud

Esther Freud was an actress before she became a novelist, and her seventh novel follows a group of actors over 15 years, from their first day at an exclusive London drama college to the point when they are ready for teeth-whitening and Botox.

The world of the aspiring thespian is conjured up through the eyes of three central characters. Their humiliations, suffered at the hands of a self-satisfied gay couple who run the school according to a strict Stanislavskian regime, are wittily observed.

This poised and gentle novel shows off Freud's satirical talents as a writer. Drawing back the curtain on the more painful moments of luvviedom, her novel is a masterful portrait of how it feels to be old enough to play other people, but too young to understand one's self.