cover image Not in Newbury

Not in Newbury

Mary Scott. Serpent's Tail, $12.99 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-85242-271-4

This quirky, idiosyncratic novel from British writer Scott ( Nudists May Be Encountered ) is amusing if overly cute. More like a series of interconnected short stories, it shows us several months in the life of Alice Mayer, who is a wordsmith, ``a designer of tiny, glittering word jewels,'' although Scott leaves it unclear exactly what those might be. Plunged into despair after a lover steals all her word jewels to use in his own art, she goes through an odyssey that takes her to a publishing house specializing in dictionaries and to the composition of her own dictionary, which apparently will be a succ es de scandal e . Along the way, she becomes a member of a feminist consciousness-raising group, is pursued by several peculiar men and ends up on the telly as guest lexicographer of Celebrity Scrabble . Scott has an unerring sense of the underlying silliness of the hip and trendy, and the book is full of clever wordplay. The final chapter, in which Alice throws a party to launch her new dictionary, is a hilarious tour de force that unites characters from Alice's past. But most of the novel's constant references to London pop culture and urban trivia will go unrecognized in the States. (May)