Barney Hoskyns is a music journalist with experience on most of the major rock mags. This is his first work of fiction.

Both those facts show clearly.

The Lonely Planet Boy isn't so much a novel as a potted history of the music scene from the late seventies through the eighties. The first chapter consists of little more than names of bands and tracks being thrown about. On page five we even get a list of the main character's all-time top twenty tracks. This sort of thing is padding at the best of times, especially in a short novel of around 45,000 words.

In fact the first chapter is totally unnecessary and contains back-story material that should have been subtly interwoven with the rest of the book.

The story, such as it is, involves a young man, Kip, a rock journalist (there's a surprise) who lives in a London squat and becomes obsessed with a female rock star who has a drugs problem. Her behaviour becomes more and more extreme, he becomes increasingly unable to cope. When something interesting finally happens in the last few pages it seems out of place - a desperate attempt to find an ending. Because the "characters" have been defined by little more than their musical preferences it's difficult to care what happens to them.

It's hard work trying to find something to say about The Lonely Planet Boy, it's just so lightweight. The writing is competent yet flat. The characters are cardboard cut-outs plastered with musical graffiti. There's no story beyond youthful infatuation, nothing to hook the reader, no page-turning quality.

What the book does have is a high nostalgia factor. If, like me, you grew up in the seventies and eighties then there will be much in this book you recognise. If you're a Londoner who remembers Charing Cross Road before the Moon Under Water then The Lonely Planet Boy will bring back memories. Unfortunately that's not enough.

Interspersed throughout the book are fictional pieces of music journalism by "Kip". These are actually fun to read, by far the book's best feature. Hoskyns is clearly a very good music journalist.

He should stick to that.