DAY OF DESTINY; BOOK OF THE WEEK.

Byline: HENDRY SUTTON

ONE DAY by DAVID NICHOLLS 

(Hodder & Stoughton pounds 12.99) ******

Talk about taking your time. Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley meet at a party just before leaving university. After a good snog they spend the next day together - St Swithin's Day - and then part, vaguely promising to keep in touch.

Not being able to quite forget each other, they do stay in contact although invariably in a rather innocent, platonic way. For a while, Dexter becomes a hip TV presenter, enjoying the fine women, drink and drugs that come his way.

Emma struggles to sustain either a decent career or a relationship, as she drifts from working in a restaurant to teaching in a secondary school.

Yet, whenever Dexter and Emma meet there are always sparks and a sense that they are really so much more than good friends. Despite this, even a steamy holiday in Greece fails to achieve kick-off.

The story is ingeniously told over a 20-year span on each St Swithin's Day - July 15. While Dexter gets unhappily married and finds his career going down the pan, Emma moves to Paris and becomes a successful children's author. Then finally the inevitable happens, but almost as soon as real love and happiness blossom, it's cruelly taken away.

One Day made me laugh for quite a while, and then cry buckets for all the right reasons.

David Nicholls, who has already brought us the brilliant Starter For Ten and The Understudy - and is the man behind numerous TV adaptations and series, including Cold Feet - has both a very deft prose style and a great understanding of human emotion. His characterisation is utterly convincing, as is, here, his exploration of love and friendship among two rather complicated individuals.

It's also a novel about making mistakes and growing up shaken, but not ultimately defeated. One Day is destined to be a modern classic - read it and weep.

CAPTION(S):

DEFT STYLE: David Nicholls