Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Great book, easy to read |
| Disadvantages: |
None |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Matt Beaumont can’t write. Well, not literally you understand. I mean, this is his third book, and you’re unlikely to get even the one book published if you cannot write. What I mean is that Matt Beaumont seems incapable of writing a normal book in a normal fashion. Take his first book, “e” for example. The entire book is in email format. The whole plot, sub-plot and character description comes via emails that have been sent to, from and around the firm upon which the book is centred. The follow-up, “an e before Christmas” was done the same way and both were enjoyable reads, if a little hard to follow from time to time.
Beaumont’s third book, “the book, the film, the t-shirt” follows the same anti-establishment rules of writing. Not that there is even the merest hint of an email here. Instead, each chapter is split into character perspective. A two-way conversation is either relayed back to the reader by one, two or more characters. It’s an unusual way to write a book, but it seems to work. Once you get used to reading each new section or paragraph in the mind-frame of one of the characters, you begin to appreciate their take on things.
Based around two central characters, Rebecca Richards, an English actress who had made her name in one of the USA’s biggest soap operas “All Our Lives Before Us”, playing the lead part alongside her on and off-screen lover Joe Shirer, this book, as with Beaumont’s previous two, is set around advertising.
Greg Fuller, Creative Director of Fuller Scheidt (say it out loud) Advertising has written a commercial for Blackstock tyres, based around a blind date who is wearing a rubber dress (it's advertising, so it doesn't need to make sense, we're told) As commercials go, it’s good. Good enough to win awards and, more importantly, good enough to impress the Italians who were about to buy Fuller Scheidt for £28m, in turn boosting Greg’s own bank account by £7m. The client loved the advert so much that they agreed to pay shed loads for it and Greg, in his own words, got ideas above his station. What better way to improve the advert than to get a well-known celebrity couple?. And none better than Richards & Shirer, especially as the latter of whom has just starred in the unexpected blockbuster film “Body Matter”. With an old friend, Kevin French, directing the commercial, Greg could proudly say that he had pushed the boat out with this advert, especially as Kevin French was now seen as an up-and-coming Hollywood director, having worked with Joe Shirer on Body Matter.
The book starts with Rebecca Richards running into trouble at Heathrow customs, who have, unbeknown to Rebecca, been tipped off that she is carrying drugs. Once the pack of Rizlas have been discovered, Rebecca quickly starts to stress out. After hitting trouble going through customs, she then turns and hits a customs officer. We see the headlines spread on Greg’s desk, and although Greg doesn’t know it yet, this is the start of the week from Hell. We learn that the two lead stars have, by the time filming starts, split acrimoniously, and this sets the scene for the whole book.
With stars and directors ready to walk off set at any time, tabloid hacks doing their worst to upset things, and the on-set discovery of Rebecca Richard’s previously lost and forgotten about film where she is the central part in a very blue movie, this book is packed with enough to keep everyone entertained. Interspersed with Greg’s cheating on his six-month pregnant wife Carrie with the producer of the advert, as well as the furore that Greg himself caused by firing Paul and Shaun, the two creative writers that had worked on all of the previously successful Universe of Sofas campaigns which in turn upset Universe of Sofas themselves who are now demanding that he re-hire them (if he can find them) and we have a story full of twists and turns that will keep your attention and make it hard to put the book down.
For me, the story struck a couple of chords when we found out that Rebecca Richards is a Chelmsford girl, and would theoretically be from literally just down the road to me. The restaurant on the Old Kent Road that the crew visit after shooting the commercial is a place that I’ve passed many times when working in London, and Carrie Fuller’s struggle through the book always brought a smile to my face, especially when she was talking to her unborn baby.
Beaumont’s style, although unusual, is easy to get to grips with, and his background in advertising lends itself well to the backdrop that this story has. Each character shows strong traits which are consistent throughout the book and though not overpowering, they are strong enough to endear you to some (in particular Greg’s wife, Carrie) and deter you from others.
With a recommended retail
price of £6.99 for a paperback version, this is about par for the course with any other book price these days and is therefore pretty good value. For the bargain price of 10p that I found this for on eBay, it’s a steal and a half! Best described as a lad’s version of chick-lit, this is still suitable as a quick read for just about anyone and I would recommend it to all.
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
