Lucky Break

Regular readers (goodness, that sounds so presumptuous), will know that I have a bit of a thing for the theatre and have previously blogged about the memoirs of former National Theatre directors, Peter Hall and Richard Eyre. In keeping with this occasional theme, I have just finished Lucky Break by Esther Freud, a tale of a group of students starting off together at an elite London drama school and which follows their progress in life, love, TV, film and theatre over the next decade or so.

Although I found the episodic nature of the narrative rather irritating (too many incomplete half stories) I liked the way in which Freud does not allow the reader to have a favourite amongst her group of characters. We cannot predict who will be the success on stage or screen and who will end up waitressing for life or touring the provinces as a pantomime horse. Will it be gorgeous Charlie, beautiful, long limbed, lean and insecurely obsessed about the occasional spot or loyal, slightly dull and dumpy Nell or perhaps ambitious Dan who aspires to be the Hamlet of his generation who will make it to the big time? Or one of Freud's other sharply drawn characters.

This is not Esther Freud at her best, in my view, but it is an entertaining read punctuated with wry humour which shines a light on the insecurities of life as a young actor and the absurdities of thinking that every missed phone call might be the lucky break.