Are You Experienced? - William Sutcliffe

Dave is a student, or at least he will be, he's on his gap year. While all his friends have gone exploring the far reaches of the globe in order to 'find themselves' Dave has spent most of his year working in Sock Shop, a job so mind numbingly dull and pointless he's actually beginning to doubt the very existence of socks. Dave wants to travel, really he does, but he doesn't want to go anywhere dirty, he doesn't want to 'find himself' he doesn't want to be reminded how rich and lucky he is. His friends launch into long winded theories about challenging cultural assumptions but he thinks what they really mean is ...  Read the complete review

There are some areas of our modern-day culture that are screaming out for satire, yet have somehow escaped it. Some areas - the modern teenager (Harry Enfield), politics (Yes Minister) and even the media itself (Brass Eye, Not The Nine O'Clock News, The Day Today) have been brilliantly done. But why have such obvious targets as the clubbing industry and the backpacker world escaped? I write this as someone who could fairly be described as both, and much as I love travelling and dancing even I can see that both have an incredibly rich vein of material, yet there is so little out there. In clubbing terms, I can think only of Ravey Davey in Viz and Sorted for Es and ...  Read the complete review

If you've ever been cornered by some halfwit gap yearer who demands to regale you with the wonderful experiences they had while travelling the world, this is the book for you. If you are some halfwit gap yearer who regales people with the wonderful experiences you had while travelling the world, this book is for you. Gleefully bursting the pretention balloon of many a backpacker, William Sutcliffe's 'Are You Experienced?' is a classic, the story of one brave soul who journeys to India with a noble aim: he's convinced he'll be able to pull his travelling companion. Lonely Planet toting public schoolboys (hang em!), terrible accommodation ...  Read the complete review

I was given this book last week, and it was one of my Christmas presents... "Christmas in March?", I hear you ask... Actually, it’s quite a funny story. You see my Mum (lets call her mrsbrowneyedmum, I’m sure she wont mind) had a copy of William Sutcliffe’s ‘The Love Hexagon’ last time I saw her. I asked if I cold borrow it when she had finished, and she said yes, on the proviso that I lend her my copy of ‘Are You Experienced?’. missbrowneyedgirl: But I don’t have ‘Are You Experienced’ mrsbrowneyedmum: Yes you do, I bought you it for Christmas! missbrowneyedgirl: Erm, I don’t ...  Read the complete review

I didn’t set out to buy William Sutcliffe’s ‘Are You Experienced’. It’s one of those books that I saw in a second-hand bookshop and thought ‘that looks good’. I bought it, read it and found it to be one of the most enjoyable books I have read. There isn’t much of a plot to it, basically slacker Dave isn’t sure what to do before he starts college, most of his friends are venturing fourth around the world. One of these friends, James, has an attractive girlfriend called Liz who Dave instantly falls for. After a series of meetings he unwittingly agrees to go with her to India for the summer, hoping to get ...  Read the complete review