From the beginning, Oliver Walzel is a natural – at ping-pong; he can chop, flick and half-volley like a champion. At sex he is not a natural, but with tuition his game improves. This is the story of coming-of-age in 1950s Manchester.

How I enjoyed this book. I was brought up in 1950’s Manchester, and recognised a lot of the places and characters, so for me there was a very strong nostalgic element. But even without that I would have enjoyed the writing because this is a wonderfully crafted and powerfully written book.  As you would expect, I suppose, form our latest Booker winner.

Jewish Manchester in the 1950’s was a world of its own, and it is captured so cleverly, so minutely, by Jacobson that you are there yourself. The immediacy is almost overwhelming. There isn’t much of a plot, just as there wasn’t usually too much of a plot in Coronation Street (it’s getting a bit beyond its roots these days!), but you still want to know what happened next.

And the writing about sport (well ping pong) is wonderful. In fact it’s been called one of the best sports books of all time. That underlays everything,

It’s not a particularly happy book, after all it’s about common humanity, but it’s full of irony and in the end redemption of a sort. I didn’t want ‘The Mighty Walzer’ to finish. It was brilliant. Would you enjoy it? I really don’t know…….