Copyright

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk

This Fourth Estate paperback edition published in 2015

First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate in 2014

Copyright © Andy Miller 2014

Cover design © Leo Nickolls

The Andy Miller asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

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Source ISBN: 9780007255764

Ebook Edition © May 2014 ISBN: 9780007375257

Version: 2015-02-10

Dedication

For Alex, love Dad

WARNING!

‘I long to reach my home and see the day of my return. It is my never-failing wish.’

Homer, The Odyssey

‘What’s the point of going out? We’re just going to wind up back here anyway.’

Homer Simpson

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

A Word of Explanation

I

Book One

Book Two

Books Three to Five

Book Six

Books Seven to Nine

Book Ten

Book Eleven

Books Twelve and Thirteen

II

III

Books 28, 29 and 31

Books 41 and 42

Book 45

Books 49 and 50

Epilogue

Notes for Reading Groups

Exclusive Excerpts from the Blog of ‘Leonard Bast’

Appendix One: The List of Betterment

Appendix Two: The Hundred Books Which Influenced Me Most

Appendix Three: Books I Still Intend to Read

Bibliography

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About the Publisher