The Great Book of Mobile Talk

Illustrated by Posy Simmonds, this is a wonderfully curated collection of sublime and delicious snippets of overheard mobile phone talk—the perfect gift for mobile phone users (and detractors) everywhere. Overheard mobile pronouncements are a modern phenomenon. In the street, in the park, in supermarkets, buses, waiting rooms, and even, heaven help us, in libraries,it’s quite impossible to get away from these tasty or repellent fragments of other people’s private lives. Wherever you lurk, their outbursts of despair or irritation ring out: mega-tantrums, in-jokes, celebrity spottings, instant post-mortems, office politics, whoops of joy and anger, weather reports, devilishly dull domestic details, parental problems, health issues, holiday plans, money matters, dinner menus, ultimatums, gossip, sporting news, amorous overtures, business deals—and any number of time-wasting pleasantries. From the stunningly mundane to the shockingly direct, the sublime to the ridiculous, here is a wonderfully curated collection of overheard mobile conversational gems.

Andrew Barrow is a writer and journalist who regularly contributes to the Independent, Daily Telegraph, and the Spectator. He is the author of Animal Magic: A Brother's Story, Gossip, 1920-70, and The Tap Dancer. His various collections of overheard remarks have appeared in Vogue and Tatler, as well as in his collection The Great Book of Small Talk.