Published in 2006.
The Giro Playboy recounts the (mis)adventures of a delusional drifter and his wanderings from the north-east of London (where the streets are paved with gold) and on to Brighton and the badlands of Essex. Along the way he falls in love, drinks a lot of beer, eats too many sweets, ponders the meaning of life on the dole and gets admitted to hospital for a painful condition - all the time measuring his life in cigarettes.An utterly charming miniature picaresque and a portrait of a life blissfully unmoored, The Giro Playboy is a twenty-first century beat classic in the making.
Selected by Elizabeth Hayden.