Iain’s first novel – Twenty Something: the quarter-life crisis of Jack Lancaster – was published by Duckworth in 2006. It is available in all good bookshops or you can order it from Amazon. It is published by Overlook in the US and Canada, Humanitas in Romania and it is also available in Australia and New Zealand.
Twenty Something spent five weeks in the top ten of the small publishers’ chart. It was also one of the Independent’s “top fifty reads for the summer”.
Iain’s second novel, Beta Male, was published by Duckworth the following year.
Praise for Twenty Something
“Pure comic gold” – Booklist, US
“There is something wonderful about this book. Hollingshead writes with the cynicism of many clever young men, but the passion of very few” – Matthew Parris, Times columnist
“The fictional diary format is one quite a few writers think they can have a crack at, yet only a few really succeed…Iain Hollingshead joins the select few – take a bow, Sue Townsend and Helen Fielding – to pull it off… [he] writes very well indeed. The novel is sharp, it’s exceptionally observant and consistently amusing… I can’t wait for Hollingshead’s next offering.” – Independent on Sunday
“A tasty dollop of British wit” – The Boston Globe
“Funny, rude and entertaining… Will strike a chord with anyone who is, was, or will be a Twenty Something” – Danny Wallace, author of Yes Man
“Excellent… a very entertaining romp. Hollingshead’s prose jiggles with energy and he has a gift for writing convincing, funny slapstick.” – Evening Standard
“Wildly entertaining and well-written – five stars.” – Zoo magazine
“Adrian Mole for the Naughty Noughties… witty and insightful observations about present-day life.” – New Statesman
“This novel embodies everything that is great about modern literature… filled with side-splitting, caustic humour and fantastic insights into life and modern day dilemmas. Hollingshead exhibits an extraordinary knack for capturing the feelings and sentiments of his generation and has resulted in creating one of the best modern novels in recent years. It is the male equivalent of Helen Fielding’s acclaimed ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’, yet it possesses the added ‘coming of age’ component that is reminiscent of great classics like Salinger’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’… uproariously funny… laugh-out-loud humour and silver-tongued commentary.” – News Record, New Jersey
“A Bridget Jones’s Diary for the fellas” – Chicago Sun-Times
“There are more than enough laughs for Hollingshead to stake a claim to being Tony Parsons for SW-something twenty-somethings. He too might possibly make Jeremy Paxman cry.” – Literary Review
“Bridget Jones’s evil twin brother… At his worst(and hence best), Jack is an opinionated snot with a ready wit… feisty, funny. Hollingshead has the chops.” – Kirkus Reviews, US
“Twenty Something is one of those stories which is so simple, yet so brilliantly entertaining, that you kick yourself for not having thought of it first… It’s contemporary, very funny, and captures young professional London so beautifully that it deserves to be read in centuries to come.” – Pen Pusher Magazine
“There is something undeniably compulsive about the book… an impressive and amusing debut… a great many snort-out-loud moments. Hollingshead proves a deft hand at setting up a comic set piece and letting it run its course. There are also some fantastic observations about modern life.” – City A.M.
“Wonderful drama and comedy…a great read, funny and yet intelligent. Iain Hollingshead is certainly a very perceptive writer and one that should be on your list for the future.” – Felix, Imperial College Newspaper
“Powerful, yet humorous fiction… a poignant tale of self-discovery and self-belief that captures the spirit of our generation.” – Embark Magazine
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