Brother of the More Famous Jack is Barbara Trapido’s first novel. Published in 1982, it soon acquired countless fans as well as winning prizes and, in more recent years, admirers including :

'The perfect book' - Meg Mason

'The best possible company in this difficult world' - Ann Patchett

'A daisy bomb of joy' - Maria Semple

'Funny, charming, teeming with life, and real' - Nick Hornby

'I adored it . Redolent of classics like The Constant Nymph with both its true voice and wonderfully sage and sanguine heroine' - Sophie Dahl

'Reading it again is as comforting as eating toast and Marmite between clean, fresh sheets' - Rachel Cooke, Sunday Times

Eighteen-year-old Katherine - bright, stylish, frustratedly suburban - doesn't know how her life will change when the brilliant Jacob Goldman first offers her a place at university. When she enters the Goldmans' rambling bohemian home, presided over by the beatific matriarch Jane, she realises that Jacob and his family are everything she has been waiting for.

Sally Phillips, much loved star of Clare in the Community, returns to BBC Radio 4 with this delightful comic tale of the joys and anguish of young love.

Abridged by Mark Kilfoyle and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
Read by Sally Phillips
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4 Show less