This, admittedly, is not really a book. It's a single-page-worth of internet fanfic ('fan fiction' for those among you with better things to read, which is hopefully all of you, and is usually also me), based on a single line from episode 8 of season 3 of BBC political-satirical comedy The Thick of It.* It is, however, quite funny, and if you're a fan of the show, I'd strongly recommend giving it a read,** especially since it'll take you five minutes tops. Anyway, even though this isn't really a book, I felt compelled to do a post about it, lest the whole month of September 2016 lie empty upon my blog's archives - an increasingly likely prospect, as I just haven't been doing much reading over summer. Well, other than that huge week-long splurge while I was on holiday. This is because I've been working on a big personal writing project, and my summers, while generally happily filled with recreational reading, have this year become much more word-output than word-input heavy. So, apologies to any post-starved readers - but fret not, I've not stopped reading entirely, nor have I given up on this blog. It might just be a bit sparse, especially since uni starts again soon.
* MILD EXPLANATORY SPOILER ALERT: Malcolm Tucker, the sweary Scottish hyper-connected hyper-angry spin doctor extraordinaire at the heart of the British government as portrayed in the show and at the heart of the show itself, temporarily finds himself jobless. Someone reads a list of increasingly absurd-sounding little jobs he could take on to fill his time post-political-career, one of which is "write a children's book called The Angry Spider". Malcolm mutters "for fuck's sake" and stands to leave. I found the line quite funny upon rewatching, and from somewhere the notion popped into my head that TTOI does have quite a cult following, and like anything with a cult following, probably inspires occasional online fan-fiction, and this was almost asking for it. So I gave it a quick google, and was not displeased. Hence this post.
** If you've not seen the show, there's probably no point, but you should also watch the show, because it's one of the finest satire series ever committed to television.
