I saw this book in Borders a while ago and it just seemed amusing. It is basically a book full of pictures of notes left by disgruntled flatmates. I was then able to hire it from the library as I was not going to pay full price for a book that you can read in about an hour. At £9.99 RRP for the hardback copy although it is sold as a coffee table book, I do not have a coffee table.

It is written by Oonagh O'Hagan who I had never heard of before, from doing some research I think it is her first book as she has two more books in the pipeline of similar collections of notes. It is published by Sphere and was first brought out back in 2007 so you may have seen this around- it is the sort of book that is sold in the comedy section of places like Waterstones and Borders. Along with books like "Crap Towns" and "Bunny Suicides". It is in the "humour" category.

The book is a mixture of written text and full page photos of post it notes, scraps of paper and notes left in situ by flatmates. It is available in both paperback (£7.99 RRP) or Hardback (£9.99 RRP) and I have just done a quick search online and you can buy this from £5.91 in WH Smiths to a whopping £27.49 on a small booksellers site.

The book will literally take you about an hour to read so there is no way I would buy this. It is laugh out loud funny at times and every time you turn a page, and read one of the notes in the book it will either remind you of something an old flatmates used to do or will make you cringe. The notes go from lighthearted such as a photo of one stamp from a stamp book with the biro penned "Here's a stamp- write to your mum she keeps phoning" to the more crass "This phone has been up my a**" post it left on a phone. The humour goes from witty to toilet in the turn of a page so it will not be to everyone's liking. But overall, there should be something in it that everyone finds funny. The thing is, it is not worth the price as once you have read it, you have read it. You will remember the notes so it is not as funny the second time around.

Some of the notes are amusing "Whatever you do DO NOT let the Bailiffs in", it is 256 pages of flatmate humour- some of the notes have obviously been written by flatmates at the end of their tether (as it can get if you have ever had a flatmate- the littlest thing can send you crazy! its just one more sock left down the back of the sofa.....) so this makes if a funny read. It covers all the little things that seem to go wrong when you have flatmates- whose turn it is to buy toilet roll to stand offs and who is annoyed whose mum keeps phoning for them etc,

I would recommend you hire this book or try to get it on sale or on a book sharing website as if money is no object and you do buy this, it will be the sort of book you want other people to read so you would pass it on. There was a website with similar notes on it but I cannot find it- even flatmatesanonymous.co.uk only has photos of the author's three books/ upcoming books so the website I saw which replicated the book must have been a promotional thing for this book.

Overall 3 stars as it is too expensive to buy but it will tickle a lot of people. Espeically if you have flatmates or have ever lived in shared accomodation or university halls. It should bring back some memories and remind you why you now do not have flatmates.


ISBN: 9781847441287
256 pages