When Tim Moore decided to write about all the Eurovision contestants who failed to poll votes, he no doubt imagined it would be a jaunt around Europe, interviewing musicians slightly embarrassed about that part of their past. And indeed in some cases, that's what he gets, such as Norwegian Jahn Teigen and Finnish Tojo, but others don't follow the script.

We have Norwegian Finn Karvik having what can only be called a mental breakdown in front of Moore, and Portuguese Celia Lawson seems sadly to also be fighting her demons. And as for poor Gunvor Guggisberg, I'm surprised she hasn't been the perpetrator of a mass shooting.

While Moore can certainly write a humorous paragraph but after a while I started to mix my Wilfrieds, my Daniels and Thomas Forstner's up as they started to sound the same. Yet, it's still the most entertaining book written about Eurovision and one wonders what Moore makes of Australia's recent entry into Eurovision. ( )

Bought 17 May 2008 - Sensible Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye

I'm coughing merrily away and tired after a riotous morning of putting washing on and off the airer, hoovering the landing and going to Sainsburys, and Matthew has come down with it now too and is curled up in bed with the cat, so MORE reading!

Moore is another writer, like Magrs, who never fails to please. Consulting the archive, I see that I first read him in 1999 (Frost On My Moustache), and I've had a good 9 years reading all his books. Like Danny Wallace and Dave Gorman, Moore likes a (slightly ridiculous) challenge; in this one he tracks down and tries to interview all the singers who received no points in the Eurovision Song Contest. He writes well as well as hilariously, and this continues a perfect run of decent, meaty and funny books that are not over too soon and have a poignancy and heart as well as a good dose of silliness. ( )

Having read and somewhat enjoyed Tim Moore's earlier work (Frost on my Moustache & Continental Drifter), and despite not being the greatest fan of the Eurovision Song Contest, I was somewhat looking forward to reading this book.

To summarise, Moore travels Europe meeting (if they let him...and they don't always) all those participants in the Eurovision Song Contest who left the arena with "nul points" (hence the title). This includes a (surprisingly small) number of Norwegians, a Finn, a Lithuanian (who looks uncannily like Keith Allen) amongst others. He then asks them what they're currently up to, in some cases twenty-five years after their night of horror.

While some of the stories make for interesting reading (such as the poor Norwegian singer who fled to Thailand to escape the mocking he got in his homeland, and subsequently had a nervous breakdown in Moore's presence), the remainder are somewhat disappointing. Not that this is the fault of Moore, or the artists in question; it's just that, after a while, the notion of "well, I had a couple of number 3s in my home country, then I gave up the biz to look after my family/my mum/my sheep" is repeated so often that the reader begins to lose interest. It's also about 100 pages too long because of this, and also because Moore drags on his meet-ups for twenty pages, when they could have been covered in two.

Still, it's an easy read, and the story of the Switzerland's answer to Geri Halliwell will petrify any wanabee pop star. ( )