The Spoiler - Couverture rigide

'Brilliant... It grips from the first with verbal polish and razor-sharp satire' Mail on Sunday

'A clever, literary romp with flashes of Nancy Mitford and Helen Fielding... A darkly, deliciously witty read' Independent on Sunday

'Extremely funny and sharply observed' Independent

When ruthlessly ambitious journalist Tamara Sim is sent to interview veteran war correspondent Honor Tait, she is thrilled. Finally - a chance to prove that there's more to her than forged expense claims and the what's in/what's out column she churns out for her tabloid. But Honor isn't an easy subject, cold and evasive to the point of rudeness, it's almost as if she has something to hide. And when Tamara starts to do some digging (not all of it strictly legal) she makes a discovery which has devastating consequences for both of them...

'A wily, insightful and engaging book about human nature... McAfee has an excellent eye for detail and a wry comic touch... The Spoiler has a cracking plot, alive with twists and turns and meaning' The Times

'Masterful... A strikingly entertaining and accomplished novel' Evening Standard

'She writes with surety and caustic humour about the industry at a time when liquid lunches and roomy expense accounts were the norm... Deeply satisfying' Irish Times

'Richly comic and entertaining' Tatler

There are two sides to every story.

Two women journalists - one old, one young, one a veteran war correspondent, the other a writer of celebrity gossip - meet for the first time. It is January 1997, the dying days of John Major's government, and newspapers, fighting for a dwindling readership, are plunging downmarket amid wild rumours that the internet is about to change the world for ever. Honor Tait (b. 1917), one of the most renowned journalists of her era, is haunted by her past; Tamara Sim (b. 1970), who compiles lists of what's in and what's out for Psst!, the weekend entertainment supplement of The Monitor, is struggling to secure her future, at any cost, in an increasingly precarious industry. When Sim is sent to interview Tait, their mutual incomprehension generates a rich seam of dark comedy. But when their different worlds finally collide, the consequences are devastating.

McAfee's trenchant first novel is part satire, part portrait of an era poised unknowingly on the brink of a technological revolution. New Labour is about to take over, newspapers are increasingly obsessed by the private lives of popstars, models and footballers, and Honor Tait and her kind are an endangered species. But is Tait really such a beacon of truth and integrity? And, as this darkly witty novel asks, is compassion the first casualty in the search for a good story?