The opportunities offered by university were seized by some as a road to a career; for others, it may have been a stepping stone into adulthood. With Nothing Guaranteed explores how experiences change quickly ideas with the journey into the real world; the comfortable norms of late teenage years and turning twenty-one are swiftly replaced by fresh and challenged ideals. In With Nothing Guaranteed, four characters arrive with their own baggage and a varying degree of expectation. David Chambers is the ultimate underachiever in an eclectic group. A journalist from a relatively ordinary family, David's agenda is always steered by short-term personal satisfaction; he remains confident in his belief that one day a big journalistic scoop will come his way, but how will he react if his break doesn't come? Privately educated, Fiona Phillips plays down her privileged background, seeing her qualification as a dentist as being down to hard work. She doesn't rebel against her parents or their ideals and, certainly, follows her own path in life. Amanda McIntyre feels that she lives partly in the shadow of her academically more successful cousin, Fiona. The well-meaning Amanda is a sensitive woman who shied away from a career as a social worker after graduating; but does she come to realise that she can achieve more than life behind a desk? According to Simon Carpenter's CV, he's an ambitious lawyer, but it's clear that he rarely focuses solely on what he wants to achieve in the legal profession. He is a capable pair of hands, but as with his peers, his development is shaped in no small measure by those around him. For all of their individual strengths, none of the characters grasps the opportunity to break away from those around them and/or each other until they are affected by the wider world, and their perspectives begin to change. | With Nothing Guaranteed by R Mark Hayhurst, Paperback | Indigo Chapters