Gods Behaving Badly – Marie Phillips

It was Mr C that originally picked up a copy of Marie Phillips' Gods Behaving Badly. He really enjoyed it and added it to my to be read pile when he'd finished.

It's a completely original book, set in modern day north London. The slight oddity is that living in north London are the central characters of the book – a family consisting of the Greek Gods! They don't particularly like modern day living, especially as they're stuck in a dilapidated house that's too small, dirty and doesn't have enough hot water. Life becomes a bit more interesting though when one of them decides to employ a mortal as a cleaner. How these two world collide provides the reader with a hilarious tale of how modern life maps onto the world of the Gods.

I was reading much of this book on a train back to London and at one point woke my colleague up with my laughter at the detail of the modern representation of the Underworld. (I won't give the game away here, but it truly is genius!)

The concept behind this book is brilliant and well worth reading for that alone. As is sadly the case with many modern books there does seem to be a bit of a fascination with having quite a few sex scenes. They aren't all that necessary in my view, but Mr C thought differently claiming that you always did see "pictures" of these Gods in a semi-dressed state. Each to their own on this I guess. If you see a copy of this then I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.