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E.

(e #1)

Matt Beaumont

4.06 · Rating details · 2,782 ratings · 301 reviews

A fast-paced, wickedly funny tale of office back-stabbing and corporate intrigue that unfolds in a succession of escalating e-mails.

Carla Browne-1/5/00, 3:05 pm
to: All Departments
re: I'm leaving now . . . but before I go there are some things you should know . . . !!!!

Set in a London ad agency desperate to land a coveted big account, e follows the bureaucratic bungl

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Paperback, 1st, 352 pages

Published September 4th 2000 by HarperCollins (first published 2000)

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Community Reviews

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Average rating 4.06 ·

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· 2,782 ratings · 301 reviews

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May 18, 2008 Annet rated it really liked it

Shelves: fun

Great fun, this book! It's entirely written in emails to and from employees of an advertising agency, where a lot of things are going on.... hilarious!!!! Remember laughting my *** off at the campfire in Canada/US last year. ...more

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May 02, 2010 Kt rated it really liked it

Shelves: junk-food-reads

'e' was a very entertaining read. I was impressed at how Beaumont managed to juggle so many main characters and still keep their email personalities quite distinct, save for two men who I couldn't tell apart (which is pretty normal when you think about it). As for those who say that real people don't actually talk the way the 'e' characters do in emails--they're wrong. I've worked online for 10+ years and Beaumont's representations are -exactly- how people talk. As for info that Beaumont occasio ...more

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May 24, 2010 Jasmine rated it really liked it

Shelves: british

okay so let's discuss. I like this book. I mean it isn't going to win a nobel prize or anything but I was thoroughly entertained walking by the hudson river reading it. My feet hurt at the end but I don't blame that on the book.

Okay so here is the thing about this book, there is nothing truly outstanding about it. I mean is there ever in a british novel. No not really. Not to say I don't love them, as Karen knows I commonly buy a book solely because it says the author is british and the queen m ...more

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Mar 21, 2007 Andrea rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anglophiles with a sense of humor

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It's about a London ad agency trying to land a major Coke campaign and it's set entirely in email. It's brilliant and each time I read this book, I laugh out loud.

***********
The above was written in 2007. Every couple of years, I pick this one back up when I'm in need of a boost. This week I needed some serious laughs, so I decided to dive back into this hilarious story. It never, ever gets old for me, no matter how many times I've read it. Be ...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Unclerupert rated it it was amazing

I read this book when it first cae out, years ago - before Twitter, before Facebook, before Google. Yes folks, it's that old. I think there are even references to fax machines. But it was hilarious - I was laughing so much reading it on the tube that people even started conversations with me. It's that good. Younger readers may not get all the references, but, despite the format, the technology isn't the key thing. It is just so funny and so well observed. The best book about working in a contem ...more

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May 13, 2018 Melissa rated it it was ok

I originally read this when the book was released in the early 2000s and thought it was hilarious, clever, witty and original. Now on re-visiting it I am struck with disappointment and disdain for its lazy use of tropes and casual sexism and even a dash of homophobia / transphobia. There are definitely still elements of clever wit and humour, and the concept of writing it as a series of emails is a touch of genius, but it just made me go "ugh" too many times now. It hasn't aged well as a novel, ...more

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Apr 24, 2010 Georg rated it really liked it

Shelves: english, humour

Q: What’s the difference between „The Godfather“ and „e – A Novel”?
A: The sequel of “e – A Novel” (i.e. “E²”) is better.

Ok, the book is still funny, the characters are dumb, ridiculous schemers, and the bosses are self-righteous arseholes.
Very entertaining, and very hard to put down. The book mostly consists of e-mails, sms’ and private messages so you have to reconstruct the stories behind all these messages. Confusing in the beginning but it doesn’t take too long to recognize the voices and t ...more

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Apr 13, 2015 Mary rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Mary by: Alison Green

Shelves: fiction, uk-aus-can-author

A fast read -- funny, inappropriate, clever

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Sep 05, 2011 Anastasia Garcia rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: personal-collection

Told in the form of short e-mails, Matt Beaumont details the events of Miller-Shanks, a London-based advertising agency, as they pitch to Coca-Cola.

Initially the e-mails are difficult to sort through because it takes a while to organize the characters, the character voices, and their motivations. I drew up a tiny character chart that helps keep things in order. (See below) Once you do organize the characters their e-mails are easy to read and you zip through them, hurriedly flipping pages uncov ...more

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Oct 03, 2011 WordsBeyondBorders rated it it was ok

The Epistolary format has been used as narrative method in many novels. Some others have parts of it written as letters. John Barth went as far as making the characters of his previous novel write letters to each other in his novel 'Letters'. But times have changed and so the epistolary novel too had to be changed. That's what matt Beaumont has done with his novel 'e', which consists entirely of emails sent by the characters of the novel. Published in 2000, this is said to the first novel to be The Epistolary format has been used as narrative method in many novels. Some others have parts of it written as letters. John Barth went as far as making the characters of his previous novel write letters to each other in his novel 'Letters'. But times have changed and so the epistolary novel too had to be changed. That's what matt Beaumont has done with his novel 'e', which consists entirely of emails sent by the characters of the novel. Published in 2000, this is said to the first novel to be written entirely as emails.

The novel is set in a fictional advertising agency 'Miller Shanks London' which is the London branch of an international advertising agency. It shows the inner workings of an office from the perspectives of various persons, the CEO, creative head, account head, the secretaries etc. It gives a glimpse into the infighting, backbiting, jealously that happens everywhere along with the brighter side like creativity, working as a team, people who still want to main ethics etc. Every office has some persons whom we try to avoid like poison, we feel better working under/for say X instead of Y. But in case of this agency it's like 'pick your poison'. Why so? Well, you have the CEO, David, who is dictatorial and more of a tyrant than your normal boss. He bullies, verbally humiliates his sub-ordinates. Would you like to be his secretary or to report to him? There is the creative director Simon , who is high on crack (valium and whatever drugs he can get) or having expensive lunch/dinner at the company's account most of the time. When he is sober enough, he plots to steal the ideas of his creative team and pass it of as his own. His is the classic case of your superior taking credit for all success and passing the failures to you. Would you be willing to trust your creative hunches with such a guy? Then you have the head of client services, probably the person with least power of the trio, which everyone else except him seems to realize. You are an account manager and manage to bring a difficult client around and suddenly you find your head taking credit for it. What would you do? Basically the top level in the company consists of jerks to put it bluntly.

The novels begins on the first day of the millennium with miller shanks employees working on that day too. This is because the agency is trying to get a contract for Coca cola which would be their biggest client till data. The employees themselves do not seem very keen on working that day, but the CEO has apparently overridden everyone. This is the main strand of the novel. Along with it there is the sub-plot of an impending advertising shoot in Mauritius for a client who owns a porn channel. (Busty silicon implanted gals are specifically to be taken there for the shoot). Problems crop up as the pitch for coca-cola seems to be going no where, but all the parties concerned trying to pass the buck to someone else. There is also the hilarious CEO of Miller shanks Helinski branch, who keeps sending unsolicited advice to David, who has to bear it. Meanwhile the shoot at Mauritius starts to go awry. (Breast implants of some of the models explode, the representative from the porn channel who has gone along for the shoot, tries to get fresh with a television anchor who has come there for a holiday and which results in a major publicity scandal). Simon tries to steal the ideas from a couple of fresh graduates and pass them off as his idea for the cola pitch. This is bought to light by the art director, but David still wants to go ahead with the stolen idea. He is ultimately stopped from doing so. However the team manage to give a good pitch to coca cola and it seems like they would get the contract. Meanwhile Simon is caught on video having sex with a transgender and it becomes a viral hit on the internet. This and the act of the client at Mauritius results in the agency losing the contract. At the end, things get resolved and everyone gets their just desserts.

I have just skimmed the surface of this novel, but there is more to it. It has a seemingly endless sequence of funny incidents that narrating them would like telling about the whole novel. This is a very raunchy, lusty novel. (It apparently had a sub-title The Novel of Liars, Lunch and Lost Knickers, it should give an idea of the novel's content). Creative directors shagging she-males, copy writers getting it on with the secretaries in the creative director's room, when a prospective client is shown around the office and sees the duo in action!!!. There is also the peach of a sub-plot of David's mail to his London employees being somehow sent to the Helenski branch also. No one knows why this is happening, David evefires two system administrators because of this. Ultimately it turns out that David is a goof in using his system and the problem is because of his incorrect sending of the mails. In novels with the office as backdrop, you generally tend to see a digression from the main point. For e.g. 'Americana' also deals with existential issues of an employee, 'Then We came to the end' shows the effects of recession while working within the framework of the office novel. In 'e' there is no such digression, in the sense that the narrative never goes away from the office. We never get to know about the personal lives of the characters. The only aim of Matt seems to crunch out one crazy situation after another crazy situation. In that sense, I would say that this is pure office novel. The dialogues are extremely witty too. Matt seems to have had a rip roaring time writing this (he himself worked in advertising prior to this) and the result is a shameless, wickedly funny novel. It once again shows that good writing can be enjoyable too.

You may not remember the characters or even the events, a few months after reading the novel, but you sure will remember the good time you had reading it and would be tempted to re-read this (it happened to me). It would not be much of a miss if you give this book a skip for now, but I would suggest that you add this to your reading list for later. When you get round to it, you sure would enjoy this. ...more

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Dec 28, 2019 Maria rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, humor

I loved this book! I've read it three or four times and I always end up laughing. It's about life in a marketing office, and it's written in the form of e-mails between the office employees. If you've ever worked in an office you should read it, you'll definitely relate with some of the characters, and the problems between them.

[Sorry for any misspellings or grammatical mistakes - English is not my native language] ...more

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May 12, 2019 Cat. rated it really liked it

Shelves: humor, fiction

Told exclusively in emails and set in the early days of 2000, this is the story of three weeks or so at a London ad agency. REALLY good at differentiating characters, and yes, we've all got some of these characters in our inboxes at work. However, this is also dated in the sense that the humor is sometimes horribly sexist, and the female characters seems to be a bit unbelievable.

Oh, well, I will probably look up the sequel to see if it's as much fun. Very much schadenfreude -- thank God no one ...more

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Jan 21, 2020 Julie rated it it was amazing

Absolutely hilarious! Well worth a read.

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Nov 03, 2020 Jef Leysen rated it really liked it

Absolutely loved it. And quite certain that anyone who doesn’t work in advertising would give this 1 or 2 stars. The resemblace with some of the typical advertising profiles are uncanny!

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Sep 13, 2015 Babs rated it it was ok

This is an interesting book written entirely by e-mails. I had mistakenly thought it was e-mails between 2 people, but instead it is the e-mails of an entire office of an advertising agency. It's written so that you can follow what's going on from a number of angles, and easily spot all the backstabbing and office politics going on.

Because of the way that it's written, you don't really get to know any one particular character. As such, it's difficult to get really "involved" in the book. However ...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Kerry rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This very funny book is about office politics and other goings-on in London, all told in email. It's a close-up look at what we all know to be true if we've ever worked in an office of any size.

There were many individuals represented, and Beaumont kept them separate and interesting. Email has changed how we conduct our lives and business. I think today many of these messages would be sent via text, so they would be a little more private, but not nearly as much fun. ...more

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Jun 20, 2015 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was fun. The email epistolary form worked pretty well. I'm not sure if it would have worked as well not set in an office, but it worked here. I do think the book seemed longer than it needed to. Some themes just seemed to repeat instead of concluding and then concluded the way they could have earlier without persuading me they needed to go on longer or without really developing the tension much further, but I still had fun. It works for the most part. ...more

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Feb 04, 2010 Jamie Collins rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, contemporary-fiction, epistolary

A novel comprised entirely of email communication between the employees of a London advertising agency in January 2000. It reads like a mash-up of Mad Men and the UK version of The Office.

It was amusing at first, but it lost me when the guys took off for the island commercial shoot. Nothing about that escapade was really funny.

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Apr 16, 2010 Andrea rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012

This was a really great book. I love the concept that the entire story is presented through e-mails. What I found interesting about it was that I realized half-way though that I could care less about the majority of the characters, yet I still couldn't put the book down. I thought it was a fun book and I liked that everyone got what they deserved in the end. ...more

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Jul 20, 2015 Judit Gonzalez rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: paper-books

Funny, interesting, revealing book.
I could see so many of my office peers depicted in the description of some of the characters in this book (just like in the TV show "the office"). Makes you laugh even harder when you can relate an absolutely horrible character to a person you know, and the author helps you make that transition.
Highly recommended (not so much the second book) ...more

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May 05, 2010 Jarrod rated it it was amazing

This book is one of the ones that forever changed my outlook on fiction. Written entirely in the form of inter-office e-mails.. it was a brilliant approach to modern storytelling. Not to mention laugh out loud funny.

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Feb 20, 2010 Brian rated it it was amazing

One of the funniest books I've ever read. Follow the adventures of London's Miller Shanks ad agency as they try to land the Coca-Cola account - completely in e-mail form. ...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Rachna Dhall rated it it was amazing

This was the first book I read in an 'email trail' format, and set within a crazy ad agency at that. I started on a friday, couldn't put down till i was done over the weekend. Hilarious. ...more

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Oct 26, 2013 Koeeoaddi rated it really liked it

Shelves: funny

Jodi's recommendation. Light, entertaining and very, very funny. ...more

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Dec 17, 2014 Soho_Black rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, owned-books

There are some ideas so brilliantly simple that you wonder why no-one had thought of them before. Writing a book in the form of E-Mails was one such idea and with E-Mails now such a widespread form of communication, even more so than when “E” was first published in 2000, it seems such an obvious thing to do. You can always tell the strength of an idea by how many imitations it spawns and the release of “Who Moved My Blackberry?” five years later suggested the idea was still a popular one.

“E” fol ...more

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Feb 06, 2017 Krysztina rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

I found this gem in a second-hand store and thought, what the heck, let's see what people were emailing about in the year 2000. Once I got past the initial confusion of who's who, this quickly became a page-turner. Even though I prefer my humor a bit more subtle, and some of the author's artistic liberties didn't quite feel authentic enough to add to the story (unless secretaries were regularly in the habit of using !!!!!!!!!s liberally and signing their names with at least three x-es a head), I ...more

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Jun 14, 2020 Aja rated it really liked it

What a surprising treat! I got this book from a half price books grab bag where you pay $10 and they put together a random assortment of books for you. This one sounded interesting and so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m so glad that I did because I loved it. It is about an ad agency trying to win Coke as a client. Very Mad Men esque.

The interesting part is that the book is told entirely through company emails. Not only was that something I’ve never seen before, it really appealed to me as an em ...more

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Aug 29, 2020 Muneer Uddin rated it it was amazing

This is one of the best novels I have read in recent times. Like many of the other reviewers, I was wary of the fact that the book is written entirely as a series of inter-company e-mails. However, Beaumont pulls it off fantastically.

The key element to the humor is the duplicitous nature of the main characters. In the personal e-mails to each other, we see what they really think, and in the business e-mails, and to contrast, the business e-mails are all brown-nosing and have the forced quality o ...more

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Jul 17, 2017 BookOfCinz rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-reads, edge-of-your-pages, loved, cant-shut-up-about-this

I currently work at an advertising agency, the Creative Director and I were discussing Mad Men and he told me I had to read this book because it captures Advertising entirely.... needless to say this book was ridiculously on point!

The book was written in 2000 so it is a little outdated, but it still manages to capture what it is like working at an advertising agency. The book is written in email correspondence amongst the worker at a fictional agency. When I just started reading, it took awhile ...more

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Jun 06, 2019 Wawa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

To call this book a blast would be an understatement. The story was unexpectedly amazing and must read for those who like laugh-out-loud funny stories written in email epistolary format.

Set in early 2000, the story follows Miller-Shanks advertising employees a few days after they jump into the new year. They've been called back to work because there is a big pitch for them to nail and their London CEO demands perfection if it must come with blood, sweat, and tears. What follows is outrageous ac ...more

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