Strides, Stephen Foster

'Being in love with someone else's girlfriend should be of slightly more concern than the size of your trouser-band relative to your own actual girth . . .

shouldn't it?' Philip Marlowe would never have played it this way. But then Philip Marlowe hadn't just stolen an ancient relic from the city museum. Philip Marlowe wasn't in love with a girl who had a boyfriend called Spurs.

And Philip Marlowe never, ever gave a thought to the cut of his own trousers. Winger is doing his best to play it cool. He's avoiding job interviews, he's bonding with the cat, he's making a mean zabaglione.

But how do you win over a girl you met by bringing her down in an offside tackle? And how do you convince her that you love her when all you can think about is trousers? Strides is a sharp and funny look at the hang-ups and self-deceptions of the modern male, from a writer whose work has been described as 'raw and vital' by the Independent on Sunday .