Wicked!

By: Jilly Cooper

Narrated by: Samantha Bond

Shortlisted for the British Book Awards, Popular Fiction Award, 2007.

At Bagley Hall, a notoriously wild, but increasingly academic, independent, crammed with the children of the famous, trouble is afoot. The ambitious and fatally attractive headmaster, Hengist Brett-Taylor, hatches a plan to share the facilities of his school with Larkminster Comprehensive, known locally, as 'Larks'. His reasons for doing so are purely financial, but he is encouraged by the opportunities the scheme gives him for frequent meetings with Janna Curtis, the dynamic new head of Larks, who has been drafted in to save what is a fast-sinking school from closure. Janna is young, pretty, enthusiastic and vastly brave, and she will do anything to rescue her demoralised, run-down and cash-strapped school.

Neither parents nor staff of either school are too keen on this radical move, although some can see the possible financial advantages. For the students, however, it offers great opportunities to get up to even more mayhem than usual.

©2006 Jilly Cooper (P)2006 Random House AudioBooks

Enjoyable, fun, exciting

I thoroughly enjoyed Samantha Bond's reading of this novel. The plot has many twists and turns, the characters are interesting and believable, and the dialogue is brilliant.

I'm not good at remembering who's who when there are many characters, but Cooper's writing style keeps providing prompts and clues without imposing on the story, so it wasn't difficult keeping track.

It's a pity this is the only Jilly Cooper title available on Audible, since she has published so many blockbuster novels.