When she was 16, Lynn Barber got into a car with a strange man. Soon – and with her parents' blessing – this obviously dodgy character was showing her a good time in London's West End and eventually he proposed. She was going to Oxford, but why bother, her parents said, when a man with money presented himself? How typical of the Striving 60s! Barber says this experience taught her to doubt the claims people make about themselves – no bad thing for a journalist. She never lost the readiness to go for it that got her to Oxford and glittering prizes that include five awards and gigs with Penthouse, the Observer and Vanity Fair. Grab the chance to read this entertaining memoir while it's being republished alongside Nick Hornby's film adaptation. When she describes her husband's final illness, this entertaining, artfully shaped memoir segues into a moving coda.