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Chart Throb
Chart Throb
Jan 27, 2026 7:24 PM

Author:Ben Elton

Chart Throb

Chart Throb.The ultimate pop quest.

Ninety five thousand hopefuls. Three judges. Just one winner.

And that's Calvin Simms, the genius behind the show.

Calvin always wins because Calvin writes the rules. But this year, as he sits smugly in judgement upon the mingers, clingers and blingers whom he has pre-selected in his carefully scripted 'search' for a star, he has no idea that the rules are changing. The 'real' is about to be put back into 'reality' television and Calvin and his fellow judges (the nation's favourite mum and the other bloke) are about to become ex-factors themselves.

Ben Elton, author of Popcorn and Dead Famous returns to blistering comic satire with a savagely hilarious deconstruction of the world of modern television talent shows.

Chart Throb. One winner. A whole bunch of losers.

Reviews

Another brilliantly savage, laugh-out-loud page-turner from Elton

—— OK Magazine

The Discworld novels have always been among the most serious of comedies, the most relevant and real of fantasies

—— Independent

His spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction

—— Mail on Sunday

Hilarious and honest

—— Heat

Carbin's brisk, funny first novel records the changes in a shallow, self-centered beauty brought on by a bun in the oven and an unlikely connection with a stranger. After being callous with many hearts, Brit Rachel Covington gets her comeuppance when her interoffice romance with superfoxy Nick Maxwell comes to an abrupt end. While pining for him and experiencing bouts of nausea, moodiness and ravenous hunger, she spies her friend Sarah McCarthy's husband, Glenn, passionately kissing another woman. Rachel also happens upon a lost cellphone and develops a friendship with its owner, charismatic Hector, soon revealed to be Glenn's successful older brother. When Rachel confirms her pregnancy, her decision to only let Hector know strengthens their bond and puts them on the fast track to potential romance, but circumstances prevent the would-be lovebirds from getting together. These are contrived in a necessary chick lit way, but Carbin fashions a convincing transformation for her protagonist. Other genre tropes abound (including the charged climax and Hector's wealth), but Carbin's engaging main character and swaggering sense of humor save the day

—— Publishers Weekly

Debbie Carbin is a fresh and entertaining new voice in women's fiction. With an engaging style and an unrivaled sense of humor, she holds the reader willingly captive until the very last page. Do you see me sitting on my couch, reading this book until 3:00 in the morning? Notice how I just can't put it down. That's how much I loved it!

—— Jessica Brody, author of The Fidelity Files

In this elegant and stunning novel, veteran heartstring-puller Hoffman (Here on Earth; Seventh Heaven) examines the lives of three women at different crossroads in their lives, tying their London-centered stories together in devastating retrospect.

—— Publisher's Weekly

I've never felt so attached to characters as I did in that book and have definitely never stayed awake all night sobbing after reading a book, but I did when I read that

—— Hollie McNish , Good Housekeeping

The Sea, The Sea is both a novel entirely about the era in which it was written and one that reflects – at an angle – the place and time we are living in… it is a joy to read: a rollicking story that seems endlessly to be building towards some awful, hilarious, frightening conclusion

—— Daisy Johnson , Harper's Bazaar

By the end I was impressed, moved and touched

—— Spectator

A bittersweet love story

—— Tatler

You'll soon be as captivated by Roza's colourful tale as Chris is

—— SHE

A bitter-sweet story of missed opportunities

—— Good Book Guide

Keen-eyed and funny

—— Victoria Lane , Daily Telegraph

There is so much truth here, as Tyler strips away the issue of ethnic difference to reach the heart of her complex and compelling matter

—— Julie Wheelwright , Indenpdent

Warm and optimistic, this story about adoption raises issues of belonging and identity

—— Bel Mooney , The Times

Tyler possesses a remarkable ability to render the ordinary extraordinary, which makes reading her work like tucking into tea and cake on a cosy Sunday afternoon

—— Kathryn Mille , Time Out

Full of excruciatingly comic set-pieces, this is an immensely satisfying, yet subtle, read

—— Simon Humphreys , Mail on Sunday

Tenderly observed and lifted by humour, Digging to America is a complex novel that asks if anyone can ever truly fit in. In answering that question Ms Tyler has woven her magic once again

—— Economist

As in her previous books, the writing here makes for wholesome, comforting fare, spiced as always with urbane wit and a knack for nailing the small truths behind fine details

—— Globe and Mail

In Digging to America, Tyler exhibits her knack for softening the sharp edges of human contact, showing people with smudges of vulnerability on their faces as they dig toward each other

—— Toronto Star

Her prose is at once unpretentious and elegiac, like a photograph by Dorothea Lange, and her imagery has staying power

—— New York Times

Deft and wise prose... [Tyler's] skill at turning everyday occurrences into amazing storytelling gets better and better

—— Sunday Express

Redemptive

—— Daily Telegraph
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