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In Office Hours
In Office Hours
Jan 13, 2026 9:16 AM

Author:Lucy Kellaway

In Office Hours

Lucy Kellaway, author of Martin Lukes: Who Moved My Blackberry?, explores the taboo of the office romance in her astutely observed and wickedly funny work satire In Office Hours.

Stella Bradberry and Bella Chambers work at the same high-achieving, high-end London firm. Bella is a pretty, young single mum, but an assistant to men with half her smarts. Stella, a go-getting, multitasking mother of two, has a seat on the board firmly in her sights.

But then these two sharp, intelligent women do something rash: they embark on affair with male colleagues they wouldn't look twice at outside work. Suddenly, both are telling lies to friends, loved ones and workmates. In the grip of passions they cannot, nor wish to, control, they carelessly break all the rules, sabotaging friendships and careers.

They've risked their livelihood for love. But ending an affair is always harder than beginning one. . .

'Funny, frank and shrewd, this comic novel is always on the money' Independent

'Whip-smart and blisteringly observant. Funny, truthful and cracking satire' Sunday Times

'Kellaway is very funny and acutely observant about workplace politics - the office here is a hotbed of passion and betrayal' The Times

Management Columnist for the Financial Times, Lucy Kellaway, lampoons modern corporate culture in her two novels: Martin Lukes: Who Moved My Blackberry? and In Office Hours. You can follow Lucy on Twitter @lucykellaway or on her Financial Times blog and podcast.

Reviews

Whip-smart and blisteringly observant. Funny, truthful and cracking satire

—— Sunday Times

A must-pack summer read. Funny, frank and shrewd, this comic novel is always on the money

—— Independent

A funny and moving tale of two affairs...don't miss

—— Grazia

Kellaway is very funny and acutely observant about workplace politics - the office here is a hotbed of passion and betrayal

—— The Times

I didn't want to put it down

—— Financial Times

A fast-moving novel about office affairs. The unusual feature of Kellaway's writing is the witty way in which she challenges established mores

—— Daily Telegraph

Astute

—— Marie Claire

Acutely observed

—— Elle

He has wit, style, and panache, in a world where those qualities are in permanently short supply

—— The New York Review of Books

A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu ... Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's.

—— New York Times

[A] comic masterpiece

—— Irish Times

Comic, satisfying, thought-provoking, addictive

—— The Telegraph

It's his supreme skill in mastering a lengthily interwoven chronicle, the evolution of such a range and variety of pin-point characters, the wit and the cultural ambition that give the novel a unique place in English Literature.

—— Melvyn Bragg

It's full of insights and recognisable characters. Remarkable.

—— Loyd Grossman , Daily Express

Wonderfully observed and true, funny, stylistically dazzling and soothing and long enough to take one through any lockdown.

—— Matthew Kneale , The Times

A passionate, hilarious look at mid-twentieth-century Britain.

—— Jeremy Paxman , Gentleman's Journal

Something I know I love ... Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, which I could read endlessly.

—— Tracey Thorn , Daily Mail

I’m bowled over, hooked and, hurrah, there are 11 more volumes to go as Jenkins grows up. Terrific.

—— Daily Mail

A highly accomplished debut, this is a chilling portrait of racial tension, social immorality, betrayal and love, and also an atmospheric examination of the end of innocence.

—— The Lady Magazine

The writing is strong and though the sections featuring Gay's earlier life lose momentum, the story picks up pace when the girls' paths become entwined and the conclusion is compelling and thrillingly macabre.

—— Telegraph

This fictional account of a true story gives a darkly shocking version of the events surrounding this tragic case.

—— Good Book Guide

Brilliantly melds a factual post-war murder into a dark fictional tale

—— Telegraph
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