Now a major motion pictureUtterly charming . . . a big-hearted, flawless coming-of-age tale, as scary and funny as your yearbook picture.People (****/Critics Choice)The year is 1985. Brian Jackson, a working-class kid on full scholarship, has started his first term at university. He has a dark secreta long-held, burning ambition to appear on the wildly popular British TV quiz show University Challengeand now, finally, it seems the dream is about to become reality. Hes made the school team, and theyve completed the qualifying rounds and are limbering up for their first televised match. (And, whats more, hes fallen head over heels for one of his teammates, the beautiful, brainy, and intimidatingly posh Alice Harbinson.) Life seems perfect and triumph inevitablebut as his world opens up, Brian learns that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.Fresh, edgy and very funny . . . [Nicholls] has a talent for droll dialogue and a wonderful sense of the ridiculous.USA TodayStarter for Ten has that elusive Hornby-factor. . . . Its wincingly funny . . . a prospect to savour.ArenaFrom the Trade Paperback edition.