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Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination

Audio

by Sukey Howard

August, 2004

Move over, Bridget Jones

If you bundled the feisty, irrepressible Bridget Jones (sans weight problem) with a fearless Jane "007" Bond and starred her in "The Perils of Pauline Does the War on Terror" with al Qaeda operatives rampant, you might get a rough picture of Helen Fielding's wryly witty take on today's world. The very title of her latest ∧#156;uvre, Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, narrated with the right flounce and flair by Josephine Bailey, offers a clever clue of the fun to come. Olivia, a journalist with a yen to be a spy, or at least a foreign correspondent, gets her wish and, armed with her invaluable "Rules for Living" and a multipurpose hat pin, has a go at a terrorist cell and no surprise saves the day and gets the cute guy.