Now a major motion picture<br><br>&#8220;Utterly charming . . . a big-hearted, flawless coming-of-age tale, as scary and funny as your yearbook picture.&#8221;<br>&#8211;<i>People</i> (****/Critic&#8217;s Choice)<br><b><br></b>The year is 1985. Brian Jackson, a working-class kid on full scholarship, has started his first term at university. He has a dark secret&#8211;a long-held, burning ambition to appear on the wildly popular British TV quiz show <i>University Challenge</i>&#8211;and now, finally, it seems the dream is about to become reality. He&#8217;s made the school team, and they&#8217;ve completed the qualifying rounds and are limbering up for their first televised match. (And, what&#8217;s more, he&#8217;s fallen head over heels for one of his teammates, the beautiful, brainy, and intimidatingly posh Alice Harbinson.) Life seems perfect and triumph inevitable&#8211;but as his world opens up, Brian learns that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.<br><br>&#8220;Fresh, edgy and very funny . . . [Nicholls] has a talent for droll dialogue and a wonderful sense of the ridiculous.&#8221;<br>&#8211;<i>USA Today</i><br><br>&#8220;Starter for Ten has that elusive Hornby-factor. . . . It&#8217;s wincingly funny . . . a prospect to savour.&#8221;<br>&#8211;<i>Arena</i>