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Playing Around
Playing Around
Jan 13, 2026 11:01 AM

Author:Gilda O'Neill

Playing Around

London in the 1960s, and the city is swinging - what could be more exciting than being eighteen? But there is a dark side to Soho. . . Angie is eighteen years old, and, with the help of a mini skirt, a pair of false eyelashes and a tube of pale pink lipstick, has made herself into a beauty. She's living in London in the Swinging Sixties, and knows she's in the best city in the world at the best possible time. She's got that world at her pretty, white-booted feet as she dances the night away with every handsome bloke on the booming, strobe-lit floor of the Canvas Club. She's heard all the scare stories of course, about what drink, drugs and discotheques can do to young girls, but Angie knows she's different. After all, she's only playing around. But that was before that rainy night, when Angie got into the big, shiny car, leaving her friend Jackie in Soho to find her own way home.

Reviews

Racine's plays...create in performance a terrifying and inescapable velocity - they are grippingly exciting

—— Alan Hollinghurst

Timelessly resonant

—— Independent

Mankell uses his deep knowledge of Mozambique’s history and politics to great advantage in this unusual and riveting story

—— Daily Mail

Mankell is the master. Let’s be honest: I hate thrillers. But I love Mankell

—— Viv Groskop , Red Magazine

Profound and compelling… Paints a convincing and poignant picture

—— Good Book Guide

Intriguing

—— Tina Moran , Daily Express

A gripping page turner

—— O, The Oprah Magazine

Jenkins shows she has a gift for tender comedy

—— Scotsman

A moving study

—— Suzy Feay , Financial Times

I can think of no better companion than Janette Jenkins' pitch-perfect reimagining of a regret-tinged twilight of Noel Coward's life

—— Harper's Bazaar

A study in melancholy, very well observed

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Perfectly-tuned imagining… Jenkins’ telling of it...saves it from any hint of predictability

—— Lesley Mcdowell , Independent on Sunday

Jenkins’s prose is thoughtful and sensitive…and her depiction of Coward’s final stage performance, which was a disaster, is particularly insightful

—— Lesley McDowell, 5 stars , Independent On Sunday

As broad and panoramic as ever.

—— Craig Brown , Mail on Sunday

There are some dazzling satirical riffs and politically incorrect laughs.

—— Jake Kerridge , Sunday Express

Wolfe’s prose is as punchy as ever.

—— Time Out

Energetically set against the deco licentiousness of Florida’s steamiest party capital.

—— Vogue

Class, family, wealth and corruption are all themes in this examination of life in Miami.

—— Sunday Business Post

[Tells] us about the way we live now... enjoyable.

—— Wynn Wheldon , Spectator

Classic Wolfe. A delight

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Epic, hectic, satirical… It’s scathing, funny, and has great set-piece scenes

—— Brandon Robshaw , Independent on Sunday

Contemporary Miami gets the Wolfe treatment in a grand, sweeping satire on race, class, lust and immigration

—— Sunday Telegraph

Wonderful

—— Robert Bound , Monocle

Parks is one of the best living writers of English, and this book is so good you don't want it to end

—— Nicholas Lezard , Guardian

If, like me, you relish Italy, railways and grumbling, this is the most transporting book

—— Christopher Hirst , Independent

A fun, informative and detailed journey

—— By the Dart
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