Time for Bed: 6/10

When it comes to improvised comedy - such as Baddiel & Skinner Unplanned - there are few that can outjoke David Baddiel. When it comes to writing, though, he can be a bit of a drag.

Whatever Love Means - his second book - was given to me by friend Claire more birthdays ago than I care to remember. It was well-written, occassionally funny, and downright depressing. But now I think about it, it left me feeling full-yet-empty, as though I'd just wolfed down a pack of hob-nobs without eating any protein first.

This feeling came flooding back last week after wading through Time for Bed, Baddiel's first novel. I'd been inspired to buy it after listening to the man himself give a reading of it, as part of a one-on-one interview at Limmud in Cambridge.

He read from the "chase" scene at the old-age home housing his character's grandmother. It was very funny. And there are parts of this book that will make you laugh out loud. But it is not - and is probably not designed to be - a gagathon in the mould of my favourite comedy book, Tim Moore's French Revolutions.

In parts, I found it voicing my deeply-hidden feelings about life - such as love being a process, and how men don't always feel it constantly but in moments. But about halfway through, I grew tired of his inner-psyche musings - I just wanted him to get on with the story about the emotionally-stunted Gabriel and his yearning for love and an end to his insomnia. Had he been reading this book, no doubt Gabriel would have had far less trouble sleeping.