An unflinchingly honest portrayal of Londoner life with great empathy style and humour A Vanity Fair of our times Tamsin Jarvis will resonate long after the final page is turned Stylist Daringly radically honest and very very funny this is the best novel yet about the lost generation of young Londoners today Left of the bang a military term for the buildup to an explosion For failing concert pianist Tamsin Jarvis the pressure is mounting She thought she was happy with her adoring schoolteacher boyfriend Callum but when Chris comes into their lives that starts to change In a few months Chris will be gone leaving for his first tour of Afghanistan Nothing seems to be working out the way Tamsin wants it to in fact shes not even sure what it is she wants With sharp satirical humour unparalleled social observation extreme sexual honesty and great empathy Claire Lowdon has captured the foibles hopes and difficulties that characterise a strata of young London today A funny unflinching insiders view on the generation born in the 1980s who are often having much less fun than it seems this is a Vanity Fair for our times