the giro playboy - michael smith

This page contains a selection of the reviews of my first book - The Giro Playboy - published by Faber and Faber.

"...original and restless... one man laid bare... the very raw material from which cult status is often ignited... has already drawn comparisons with Jack Kerouac and Hunter S Thompson... what a beautiful writer... little epiphanies everywhere..."
The Times

"Wonderful... one of the best books I've read in some time..."
BBC Radio 3

"...a treat... a masterpiece of gutter romanticism that stands up for those who, for whatever reason, refuse to sign the contract"
Tatler magazine

"...digs out plenty to lift the heart in the increasingly conformist landscape of Britain... celebrates those little epiphanies that peek out from the cracks of modern life..."
Dazed & Confused

"...Smith's London perpetually seems to melt and re-mould itself with an almost filmic fluidity... reminiscent of George Orwell... Henry Miller... the Beats... even Dickens..."
i-D magazine

"...beautiful prose poetry... being heralded as the new Roger McGough - or indeed the new Rimbaud..."
The Word magazine

"...a British beat classic for the 21st century... debuts don't come much saucier or more sordid than this... the Hunter S Thompson of Hartlepool..."
Esquire

"...a cult classic in the making... his languid and meandering journey through life is beautifully laconic and told with a loveable charm..."
Attitude

"...brilliant..."
The Idler

"...by making it all so naively personal, Smith's novel offers a different take... and its inconsistencies become just one more thing to love it for..."
BBC Collective - the interactive culture magazine

"...a brilliant slacker assault on bourgeois myths... before you know it you are seduced... like William Blake's poem London, Smith treats us to a classic piece of flanerie... highly readable and enjoyable..."
Dogmatika

"...like a drug-addled Catcher In The Rye... has the potential to reach a similar cult-like following... is set to put Hartlepool on the map..."
Hartlepool Mail

"...has already engendered comparisons with Hunter S Thompson, Plath, JD Salinger, and Rimbaud... poignant and witty... So often did I find myself saying 'I know exactly how he feels'..."
Transition Tradition magazine

"...magnificent, triumphant first novel... a major new talent... I envy you the joy in store..."
Amazon.co.uk

You can get hold of your own copy The Giro Playboy in all good bookshops - or you can buy it on the internet at Amazon.co.uk.

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The Giro Playboy
by Michael Smith
Paperback 208 pages
Published March 2006
Faber and Faber
ISBN 0571228224
» Buy at Amazon.co.uk

Extract from
The Giro Playboy...
"For a while I lived in a seaside resort, in a bargain bedsit next to the King of Portugal's old mansion retreat, in 'The Beverly Hills of the Georgian era'... nowadays it's a faded bohemia of trannies and longhair public school bongo players and midget scousers gouching in telephone boxes next to the methadone clinic..."
» Read more extracts