One For My Baby, by Tony Parsons, read by Colin Buchanan

Remembering the vicar whose fiction Virago briefly published under the illusion that it was written by an Asian girl, I sometimes wonder if Tony Parsons's books are in fact written by a vicar's daughter set on vengeance after being jilted. He majors in reformed cads, and his success is well-deserved: he writes with verve and is first-rate at creating sympathetic characters. But he will only become a really interesting writer when he explores what happens after his happy endings. Having got that bit of bile out of my system, I can recommend One For My Baby, not just because it's topping the bestseller lists, but because its first-person narrative reads aloud superbly. Colin Buchanan becomes Alfie, the wounded widower, who is enjoying nookie with his students at the same time as learning about the Meaning of Life from the owners of a Chinese restaurant.

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