Product Description

Maybe hormones ate her brain. How else did Judith's husband persuade her to give up her career and move from her beloved London to Northumberland with two toddlers in tow? Pregnant with number 3 Judith is about to discover that there are one or two things about life in the country that no one told her about: that she’d be making friends with people who believed in the four horsemen of the apocalypse; that running out of petrol could be a near death experience and that the closest thing to an ethnic minority would be a redhead. Judith tries to do that simple thing that women do, make hers a happy family. A family that might live happily ever after. Possibly even up North ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19680 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
I howled with laughter, tears of recognition at every bloody page. My only problem with this book was choosing who to pass it on to first. (Amanda's Wedding )

Jane Fallon, author of GETTING RID OF MATTHEW
'Genuinely funny and genuinely moving'

Lisa Jewell
'O'Reilly's account of an urban mum in Northumberland is funny, poignant and beautifully written'

Customer Reviews

beautifully written
As a blogger myself I was really interested to see what happens to a blogger who gets propelled to the literary stratosphere. I had read some of the blog but not all, and was not really sure what to expect from the book.

It was beautifully written and very poignant. Judith agrees to her husband's life long dream to life in Northumberland and uproots her existence to live in total chaos with two small boys, whilst also being heavily pregnant. The house is not ready. It is too small. It takes months for planning permission to be granted and the money keeps running out. Her husband, the man who wanted to live there in the first place, comes home for the weekend once every three weeks and spends most of the rest of the time in London, which is where she wants to be but isn't. She catalogues her woes in this blog/book.

People have criticised the book and the woman for being petulant and selfish. I disagree. She is writing about what is true for her. I feel that if I were in her shoes, I too would be rather depressed and find it very hard to find a silver lining. Living on what is a building site, out of boxes with three small children, one a newborn who is waking most nights is not easy, not easy at all. I applaud her for having stuck it out and not run off screaming into the distance.

My only beef is that this book is being marketed as a 'hilarious' read. It isn't. It is funny, in places, and indeed has some laugh out loud moments, but it is also tragic, poignant and heartfelt. It tells the truth of someone's chaotic life, their highs and lows and at times I felt that I could weep with empathy. Don't be fooled by the cover. It is not a jolly read. It's much more than that.

tricky one, this.......
gosh this book stumped me - at first I was all set to give it one star because of the womans incessant moaning and whinging on how wonderful London is blah blah blah wish she was back there yadda yadda yadda and this went on for the entire book! I pushed myself to finish it as I wanted to know if the family ever returned to London...... and yes WHY was it her husband's job to fill up the car when he's in London????? Does she never check her fuel herself....? And the fact that she was extremely well off - most of us normals wouldn't have the money to do what she and her husband did.... buy two cottages and knock them into one have the builders in for months rent a house to live in meanwhilst and then at the end of it all install the Londoners dream of the AGA (mega bucks) and clawfooted bath (ditto) I certainly didn't find it funny despite what it said on the front cover!

And yet, and yet, she writes like a dream come true in some of her ruminations, particularly her observations of nature. And near the end of the book I was absolutely slain by her stark account of family tragedy - the suffering was there in every word. So I guess you pays your money and takes your choice - I see other reviewers liked it...... takes all sorts!!!

Wish I hadn't bought this book
If you like "humour" borne out of moaning then this is the book for you. Unfortunately I don't and struggled half way through and then gave up. Escapism this is not.