Product Description

Picture the perfect family! Now forget it & read this. An achingly funny novel on modern motherhood and married life, as told through the e-mail correspondence of two sisters. When your family snapshots resemble NSPCC ads and it takes a quick-witted au pair to prevent your guests from burning alive, you have well and truly arrived in motherhood! Charlotte and Nell are sisters who live thousands of miles apart, each coping, or rather not coping, with the incalculable demands of motherhood. The daily battle to avert domestic disaster and keep up with the Dickenson-Jones's is abated only by their hilariously candid e-mail exchange. They address some crucial questions, such as: if your son hasn't noticed that you've given Benny the hamster away, it is safe to assume he's forgotten? What is the unassailable law of nature that guarantees a cool, elegant paint, chosen with a loving homemaker's care, will dry to the colour of greying ham? And will a glass of chardonnay make it all better? Charlotte and Nell are separated by continents but united in tales of over-busy lives and family mishaps - how to cope with children demanding their attention 24/7, husbands who are oblivious to the madness their world has become, as well as coming to terms with the fact that they are no longer the youthful free spirits they once were. And God Created the Au Pair is perhaps what Bridget Jones might write if she got married, had children and began to wonder whether being single had its advantages after all!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128528 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Mail on Sunday
'Divided by continents, they’re united by domestic mayhem and trade e-mails of Desperate Housewife-style horrors.'

Sunday Express
'the writing is witty, entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny...I...miss[ed] them like two real friends when I’d finished.’

Frances Osborne, author of Lilla’s Feast and mother of two.
'An unputdownable book...Essential comfort reading for any mother. Please can we have a sequel, soon.'

Customer Reviews

Laugh out loud for two days!
Anyone who has regular email contact with a female friend will LOVE this book. It is absolutely hilarious. Don't be put off by the title as au pairs are not the main subject, but there is alot of detail about families in general and especially kids, husbands and animals. I just loved the format - it's written entirely as a series of emails between two sisters with the odd one from friends chucked in to give background. It's so easy to read and I really did laugh out loud practically all the way through(which is exhausting). There is plenty to relate to if you have one (or two, three, four) children but even if you don't, you can still enjoy what is extremely entertaining discourse between two sisters living on different sides of the atlantic. I advise you to go buy this book now!!!

An excellent, funny read
Having read a few of their columns in The Times, I bought the book to see if it would be as good - in fact it was better! I am not a child fan (by any means!) and was therefore dubious about a book where life revolves around a lot of them!! but it had me laughing out loud the whole way through (would have been louder except for disapproving looks from boyfriend!) Very well written and everyone will be able to relate to it one way or another. Made me realise why my sister has 4 children but reinforced why I don't plan on having any soon! An excellent read.

HYSTERICAL!
I can't recommend this book enough. I read this on the beach in Egypt and at times my husband feared for my life ! I have never laughed out loud so much reading the book. I don't have children - so PLEASE dont be put off by the title. I did read bits out to my husband when I could compose myself enough to do so - but he really didn't get it. It's the ultimate girlie read. I am now reading it again and am still finding it hysterical. GO AND BUY IT !