One Day

selexyz favourite of the month march 2010

He is Dexter Mayhew, tall, dark and (she can't deny it) handsome, largely naked and somehow in her single bed in her tiny room on the very last day of four years of education.

She is Emma Morley, bottled red hair, wilfully badly dressed, all principles and no action. And very, very surprised to find herself kissing Dexter Mayhew.

A simple one night stand, at the dawn of the rest of their lives? Or are Dex and Em living proof that - despite an unlikely beginning - men and women really can be just good friends?

'A wonderful, wonderful book: wise, funny, perceptive, compassionate and often unbearably sad ... the best British social novel since Jonathan Coe's What A Curve Up!... Nicholls's witty prose has a transparency that brings Nick Hornby to mind: it melts as you read it so that you don't notice all the hard work that it's doing.' - The Times

'Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable ... brilliant on the details of the last couple of decades of British cultural and political life.' - Nick Hornby

'You'd be hard pressed to find a sharper, sweeter romantic comedy this year than the story of Dex and Em.' - Independent

'With a nod to 'When Harry met Sally', this funny, emotionally engaging third novel from David Nicholls traces the unlikely relationship between Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew ... Told with toe-curlingly accurate insight and touching observation ... If you left college sometime in the Eighties with no clear idea of what was going to happen next, or who your lifelong friends might turn out to be, this one's a definite for your holiday suitcase. If you didn't, it still is ... The feelgood film must surely be just around the corner. I can't wait.' - Daily Mail

About the author
David Nicholls trained as an actor before making the switch to writing. His TV credits include the third series of 'Cold Feet', 'Rescue Me', and 'I Saw You', as well as a much-praised modern version of 'Much Ado About Nothing' and an adaptation of 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', both for BBC TV. David has continued to write for film and TV as well as writing novels, and he has twice been nominated for BAFTA awards.
David's bestselling first novel, Starter For Ten, was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club in 2004, and David has written the screenplay for the film version of Starter For Ten (released in 2006, starring James McAvoy).