This was my holiday book, and I have to say, I loved it. In fact it made me cry (and laugh), and there aren’t many books that can do that.

The premise of Nicholls’ book is really simple: the story begins with the two main characters, Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, meeting on 15th July 1988, St Swithin’s Day, which is the night of their graduation. The next day the couple have to go their separate ways, but we get to catch up with what they’re up to, on the same day, 15th July, for the next 20 years.

So we follow Emma as she moves to London and gets a mundane job in a Mexican restaurant, and then later in an inner-city comp, and we follow Dexter’s rise to C-list celebrity fame as the presenter of some godawful late-night mockney yoof programme. All the while the couple keep in touch, through letters, phone calls and meals out, and at the weddings of mutual friends and acquaintances. We follow them as they grow older and as they develop relationships with other people, and we follow them as they deal with the everyday challenges of 20th/21st century living.

Unfortunately there’s no way to convey what makes this book so special through a plot summary like that. But take my word for it, it really is. Special that is. It’s the sort of book you regret finishing: that you get to the end of and then wish you had another 400+ pages to go. It’s the sort of book you push on all your friends and family, saying “go on, read this, I just know you’re going to love it!”

So go on, read it, I just know you’re going to love it.