From the back:

"Stay-at-home mum Fran Clarke is approaching her 37th birthday - and crisis point. Once a brilliant voiceover artist, she hasn't worked for years and now her self-confidence, like her career, is a distant memory.

Struggling to keep up with the perfect mothers that surround her, failing to communicate with her kids and increasingly absent husband, and only staying afloat on a sea of Chardonnay, Fran knows she has to stop sinking and start swimming.

But nothing's easy when you're trapped in Motherland."

***

From a sale at the Academic Bookstore in Helsinki, Finland.

To me, this was one of those "can't put down" books (good thing I was on sick leave when reading it!). It was both funny and touching. I could so relate to Fran even though I haven't hit the rock bottom like she did. But then, I have a husband who works regular hours and pulls his full share at home as well - and I went back to work when my son was 18 months. Otherwise Fran's story might be mine too ;)

Oh, and the London setting didn't hurt either. I always enjoy reading about familiar locations and spotting familiar names and other references (I've lived in London).

This book will next travel on to someone who picked it from a First Sentence VBB running on the Finnish forum.

It might not be her cup of tea though, so I won't be offended if she passes it on without reading it herself ;)

Hmm... I'll try almost anything once. Perhaps as an owner of an 11-week-old puppy I can relate to mummy-problems...

Came here to quickly report that I'm afraid I relate all the way to somebody who pities the woman in the mirror. I do not understand how all that fat has landed on that poor thing as I still feel slim inside (I was a very skinny girl, but when I stopped growing up I started to grow sideways).
I've never understood the mockery of the McDonald's chain - for a long time they had the only clean public toilets in Europe. Besides Big Macs are a bliss ☺.

Finished. I think over 300 pages was a bit much, I got the message sooner, but I did keep going.
One of our clients went through the same hell as Sareya, but she didn't get any pain relief and afterwards she was left all alone at the hospital room. Nobody asked how she was or if she needed anything or tried to talk to her. One thing was told to her right away: Because the baby was stillborn and dead, the insurance would not cover it. Had he taken even one breath, they could have had insurance money. Like money would have been the issue there. Like money could replace what she had lost.
I felt a little pang there, when Fran had all her spikes up - I remember having done that same thing, cutting all efforts of reconciliation with evil sarcasm. I'm great at burning bridges. Revenge is my middle name if I feel I've been let down 😈.

Any desperate mothers about in Oxford?

I recently read another book by Maria Beaumont that I loved, and now want more of her. Thanks for bringing the book to Oxford!

Read this one year ago (shortly after my own 37th birthday) during a time when I obviously forgot a lot of journal entries.
After reading several funny books by Maria Beaumont, this surprised me, because it was rather sad. But I totally could relate, and was so happy when they had kind of a happy end.

for the book buffet

Taken from the convention book table for the release walk :-)

Released somewhere between St. Hanshaugen and Frognerparken :-)