Graham Norton is unlikely to want to give up his glitzy day job and become a fulltime writer but his fifth novel Frankie proves that if he wanted to he could The story is beautifully crafted and impeccably researched taking the reader on a rollercoaster ride of emotional highs and lows It also has flashes of dry wit and memorable turns of phrase as you would expect from Norton It travels from contemporary London to 1950s Cork and on to New York City particularly Greenwich Village and the flourishing contemporary art scene of the 60s and 70s back to London in the 80s and 90s and the present day Each era is convincingly evoked rich in detail and the prose is enlivened by some terrible jokes from Frankies lifelong friend Nor It opens in the present day with the thoughts of Damian a young Irishman living in London working as a carer looking after wealthy old people with large homes in west London When a job comes up in east London near Damians rented houseshare Frances Howe eightyfour Lives alone Broken ankle his manager offers it to him adding And shes Irish so thatll be nice for you This lumping together of Irish people annoys Damian reminding him of the way straight friends proudly announced the existence of their other gay friend Youve got to meet him Youll love himHe failed to see how any amount of Irishness would give him something in common with an incapacitated eightyfouryearold woman The woman Frankie is described by her friend Nor as cranky since her fall Nor is a more colourful character than Frankie tall and stylish in a bohemian way and obviously wealthy Damien rightly concludes that Nor not Frankie will be paying for his services It turns out that Frankie and Damian are from the same part of west Cork and there is a growing rapport Then the scene changes to Ireland 1950 and 10yearold Frances Howes unhappy life in Ballytoor From a very young age she learns to mistrust happiness and sure enough after a highly enjoyable birthday party she comes home to discover that her parents have died in a car crash Her subsequent misery is only made bearable by her friendship with Norah Deane who shares her offbeat sense of humour After school Frances takes a cookery course in Cork city and shows unusual talent Norah comes to the rescue when 18yearold Francess marriage to an older clergyman fails after she finds him in flagrante with a young parishioner Norahs mother arranges for her to join Norah in London and Frankie is born Norah now known as Nor works for a theatrical empresario and socialises with a colourful set of lesbians who make much of the new arrival Frankie She is given a job and whisked off to New York by her boss Van Nor warns her that Van can be capricious and sure enough Frankie falls out of favour and is dumped by the side of the road after a house party on the Hudson She has no money nowhere to stay and no return ticket She is rescued by her hosts chauffeur Joe and taken to the apartment in Greenwich Village that he shares with his sister Betty So begins a long and exciting phase of her life She and Joe fall in love and Betty introduces her to a local restaurant where she can work shifts Her talent is recognised and she is soon launched on a successful career as a chef and restaurateur Frankie is a triumph popular fiction at its best and will surely dominate the bestseller list for many months to come