Dave Wilson is a London barman who, in late December 1995, sifts through telephone numbers accumulated during the year. Each chapter tells the story behind one number. He joins a band of people who wear pink underwear every Friday, goes to sea in a collier, helps a client sell his invention, takes a sick woman to hospital and has other adventures. He becomes friendly with a less than honest policeman, and flies to New York where he falls for an unobtainable woman. There are stories of Christmas parties and egotistical celebrities. Humour weaves through this collection of slices from different lives.

Since Boswell’s Fairies, a tale about recruit training in Her Britannic Majesty’s Corp of Royal Marines, was published in 2017, Peter Lingard has turned his style of writing to tell of life in an English public house. Peter worked in a London pub for a while (although it was nothing like the one depicted here) and thereby gained the experience necessary to write this book. These days he prefers wine to beer, but his love of Manchester City FC is constant.