![](https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2012/10/25/15/508003.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1024)
books
William Leith25 October 2012
Noughties
by Ben Masters
(Penguin, £8.99)
Eliot Lamb is a brilliant, self-conscious, scathing student and it’s his last day at Oxford. He’s sitting at a “cock-heavy” table in a pub, with his best mates Scott, Jack and Sanjay. He tells us about “the poetry of the pub” — the stifling atmosphere, the customers, the rhythms of his bladder. It’s an important night for him: he’s haunted by two women and, as he puts it, “Now is the time to grow a pair.” A lovely debut.
MORE ABOUT