Who is popular today?

A retirement village in Kent and 50s Catalonia provide the backdrops for two popular TV hosts’ very different debut novels
In a recent YouGov survey concerning British TV celebrities, Richard Osman emerged as the ninth most popular telly personality – the words most often used to describe him were “likable, clever, quick-witted and charming”. Fans of Osman were, the survey suggested, most likely also to admire Dawn French, Judi Dench and appliances made by Russell Hobbs. All of which data no doubt helps to make Viking Penguin, the publisher of Osman’s first novel, comfortable with its decision to invest a “seven-figure advance” in a two-book deal, safe in the knowledge that the Pointless co-presenter is well on the way to national treasure status.
The Thursday Murder Club might double as a final application for that accolade. The club of the book’s title meets every week in the jigsaw room at Coopers Chase, a superior gated retirement village in rural Kent; the puzzle the members attempt to solve, however, is not the “two thousand piecer of Whitstable harbour” left unfinished on the coffee table, but rather one of several cold murder cases brought to their attention by Penny, a resident in the village and a former police inspector. What follows threatens to become the Famous Five in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, or a Midsomer murder for a whole gang of Miss Marples. Could there be a more seductive pitch to the readers of middle England (or to the producers of Sunday evening drama)? Continue reading...