The Vanity Game

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Ripping the lid off the world of celebrity culture, The Vanity Game is a satirical black comedy that's as disturbing as it is hilarious.Sexier than David Beckham and nastier than Joey Barton, life couldn't be much better for professional soccer ace and international megabrand, Beaumont Alexander. Living the life of luxury in his Essex mansion, The Love Palace, with his beautiful pop-star girlfriend and queen of the WAGS, Krystal McQueen, he’s every bit as vain as you might expect from a man who has the world at his fingertips as well as his feet. But a celebrity party kick-starts a chain of events that turns his dream lifestyle into a waking nightmare. It begins with too many drugs and an attractive waitress and leads to an argument with Krystal that doesn't end well. Then a shady cartel steps in and changes his life forever.Beaumont Alexander is about to discover that substitution is a fate worse than death."Take a pinch of TOWIE, add a measure of vapid sleb culture, throw in a few dark temptations, lob the lot OTT, and you've got a recipe for a premier league winner."– Val McDermid, bestselling author of The RetributionA dark comedy for fans of John Niven (Kill Your Friends), Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho, Glamorama) and Nick Hornby (Fever Pitch).What they’re saying…"The Vanity Game eviscerates celebrity culture with the incisiveness of an expert surgeon – but with a giddy, over-the-top pleasure that's exhilarating."– Megan Abbott, bestselling author of The End Of Everything and Dare Me"The trenchant first-person narration... comes into its own as an engine for driving the story at a page-turning pace that's hard to resist.'– The Herald"a debut novel of rare originality and dark wit"– Crime Fiction Lover"you’ve got a hugely compelling main character at the center of a fast-paced book that’s part downward spiral noir, celebrity satire, and paranoia thriller"– Spinetingler Magazine"a cracking good read that will surprise you with all the twists and turns"– A Knife And A QuillFrom the author…“The Vanity Game takes a satirical swipe at the spectacle of modern celebrity culture. Fame no longer needs to be validated by talent or beauty; a picture in a trashy magazine is accreditation enough and thus the media creates an endless supply of fodder to gorge itself on. This seemed to me to be a situation overly ripe for satire. “I decided the main character, Beaumont Alexander, should be a Premiership footballer because football is the modern capitalist fairytale. The way these young working class kids, who have nothing, are plucked from their sink estates and suddenly find themselves earning £100k a week and being offered everything… I thought: ‘Well, that must be rather a headf*.’ “And I thought you could make an interesting character from that starting point. Such a violent change in fortune must seriously knock one’s moral compass off-kilter.”About the author…HJ Hampson is a novelist and screenwriter from Runcorn, a bleak industrial town in northern England. She went to Sheffield University where she was the music editor on the student paper. Whilst dossing around in Sheffield after university she formed a rock band called The Lousy Virgins – who were indeed quite lousy – and began writing short stories and novels. She currently lives in London, where she hangs out at literary haunts and drinks lots of gin.