Product Description

Mimi and Ralph have left social climbing, pushy parenting and their marital problems behind them in London, and moved west to the bucolic green depths of the country. Or so they thought. Yes, there's mud and masses of fresh air, plenty of handsome hayseeds and there's Rose, Mimi's new best friend and Dorset's answer to Martha Stewart. But what should be Shire Heaven is, it turns out, just as tricky to navigate as Notting Hell. There's low-level conflict between the racehorses in vintage/Diesel/Ralph Lauren and the brood mares in Barbour/Boden, there's guerrilla warfare between the landowners and eco-warriers and naked hostility between Old Money, New Money and No Money. Yes, in honeybourne, if you don't have:1) A landscaped garden within 1000 acres (minimum) of prime land2) A helipad for your trophy guests3) An organic farm shop selling 16 sorts of home-made sausages4) Four pony-mad polo-playing children5) A literary festival in your mini-stately6) A bottom that looks smackable in jodhpursThen, well...you're Mimi basically.And that's just the start of her problems. Mimi also has a secret. But can she keep it?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150921 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
Praise for Notting Hell 'Shiveringly brilliant' Jilly Cooper 'An addictively funny read about the lives of the rich and richer ****' Heat 'A wickedly funny comedy of modern manners' OK!

From the Back Cover
`An irreverent romp through the wilds of the English countryside...hilarious. Johnson's humour is wickedly delicious' She

`As witty as it is affectionate, will delight both townies and countrymen' Country Life

`Great fun' Closer

About the Author
Rachel Johnson is a newspaper columnist and journalist. She is married to Ivo Dawnay, has children, and lives in London and Somerset. The Mummy Diaries and Notting Hell are available now from Penguin.

Customer Reviews

Plus ça change ...
Mimi and Ralph Fleming have sold their house in Notting Hill and moved to Honeyborne in West Dorset. The population of that village is made up of a few people - gentry and lesser folk - who have lived there for ages and of a number of wealthy newcomers. The latter in particular bring with them all the competitive attempts at one-upmanship that characterized them in Town; and Mimi, ever fashion-conscious, now has to learn what is fashionable in the countryside. There is a lot about horses and horsy women, and a nice extended set-piece description of a country house shooting party.

Rachel Johnson ploughs much the same furrow as she did in her previous novel, Notting Hell. If you were amused by the recounting of what is chic in Notting Hill, you will be amused by this novel also; but if, like me, you wearied a little of this relentlessly sustained theme by the time you came to the end of the former book (see my review), your heart may sink a little at more of the same here. In Notting Hell there were some hilarious situations which made me laugh; but in this book, though it has some intricate plotting, the comedy of manners is not matched - at least in my opinion - by comic situations. It seemed to me that the author was for long stretches somewhat on autopilot. As in the last book, we have alternating female narratives: one by Mimi and the other by Rose, the only companionable friend and confidant Mimi has been able to make in Honeyborne. The situations are similar also: in Notting Hell a wealthy American outraged the other residents of the garden square by erecting an intrusive `garage'; in Shire Hell a (somewhat) impoverished local landowner plans to erect a huge wind-turbine on a beautiful hill-top, for which he will collect a handsome sum from an electricity company. There are the same erotically-described infidelities, though in the countryside this is apparently so natural that it is not a subject for gossip and side-taking as it was in Notting Hill, and husbands have to put up with it because, apparently, divorce puts you out of the loop in the countryside. Clare, whose narrative had alternated with Mimi's in Notting Hell, makes her appearance and towards the end fruitfully ties the two books together. Just how fruitfully emerges at the very end; but, in between, Rachel Johnson inserts a sensational revelation which, contrary to the notion that in a village community everyone knows what everyone else has been up without that being a subject of gossip, does create a buzz.

Mimi is involved in one heart-felt situation, and in the end I did rather like her.

Sheer hell
Some people obviously like this book, and that's great, but I can't see why. It's little more than a string of designer label name-checks and two-dimensional posh characters who I couldn't care about or be interested in. It's really not for me.

Shire fun
Rachel has done it again. This time though she has transported her gang from W11 to rural Dorset. The plot is fun, the characters are well thought out and her desciptions are totally & utterly spot on. Rachel just "gets" the people. Shire Hell is an easy read. I loved it and thought it was better than Notting Hell. I live in W11 so I also get it. Do buy it it is a feel good read. Hoping your next offering is as good Rachel

S Garrett ( a fellow W11 Babe)