Product Description

Meet Caroline Gray: divorcee and newly-single mother. Firmly closing the door on her acrimonious divorce, Caroline and son Ben have moved to trendy Frencham where they join Caroline's long-time best friends, Heather and Eva. Settling into their new life is easy, but nothing has prepared Caroline for the demands of motherhood at The Sycamore, the school the trio's beloved offspring attend. Forget classroom bullies, forget trips to the head's office, this is full-scale adult playground politics. This is battle with the mothers who won't take no for an answer - the Playground Mafia. Amidst the four-wheel drives, Ben's complicated afterschool play-date schedule and her friends' perilous extra-marital affairs, Caroline tries to keep a low and very single profile. But it's not long before she too finds herself under the mafia's scandal-radar, and her life takes an unexpected turn...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82516 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From the Publisher
A fantastic commercial concept, this is one of Arrow's most exciting women's fiction launches in 2006

From the Back Cover
Meet Caroline Gray: divorcee and newly-single mother. Firmly closing the door on her acrimonious divorce, Caroline and son Ben have moved to the trendy town of Frencham where they join Caroline’s long-time best friends, Heather and Eva. Settling into their new life is easy, but nothing has prepared Caroline for the demands of motherhood at The Sycamore, the school the trio's beloved offspring attend. Forget classroom bullies, forget trips to the head's office, this is full-scale adult playground politics. This is battle with the mothers who won't take no for an answer -- the Playground Mafia.

Amidst the four-wheel drives, Ben's complicated afterschool play-date schedule and her friends' perilous extra-marital affairs, Caroline tries to keep a low and very single profile. But it's not long before she too finds herself under the mafia's scandal-radar, and her life takes an unexpected turn ...

About the Author
An award-winning broadcaster and journalist, Sarah Tucker was a presenter on the BBC1 Holiday programme and, more recently, anchored I Want That House Revisited on ITV1. She regularly contributes to women's magazines, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and The Guardian and is the author of Have Toddler, Will Travel and Have Baby, Will Travel as well as three romantic comedies published by Harlequin. Sarah is a single mum and lives in Richmond.

Customer Reviews

Playground Mafia
Read this book if you have children! I emabarked on by children's school life many years ago with genuine excitement at them enjoying a nice education in a nice prep school. How wrong could I be! School was lovely the teachers were great but the playground....well it was Hell. This book is both funny and sad at the same time as it really proves that all playgrounds are much the same. It isn't spot on but it certainly proves that those of us who send our children to nice schools just because are naive. I encountered the parents who clearly already had their kids lives planned out for them, those that only judged you based on your house, car, clothes etc and those that were simply out to make their mark ont he world by being rude and unpleasant. The book is one most parents, mum's especially will read with both a smile and a grimace at the accurate characterisation by Sarah tucker. My advice is to drop your kids off at the gate and leave the rest to the teachers...don't get involved with anything at the place. If you don't have children yet read this book and take heed!

Not for me
An overwhelming plus for me, when reading Chick Lit, is if I like the main character. I dont mind if shes single, married, divorced, gay, a mother...as long as I like her, or something about her. I didnt like the main character in The Playground Mafia, Caroline Gray. Shes a newly divorced, single mother, who I found harsh, hard and frivolous. She has two best friends who I liked far more than her - Heather and Eva, and a few new enemys (head honcho of the PTA Sarah Flint and her sidekicks). Caroline is having far more trouble settling into her sons new school than he is, and as the Playground Mafia gang up on her, her life .... well ... gets a bit worse I suppose for a short time before getting better again. I dont have kids, and Ive never been married (and therefore never divorced) and have forgotten my own playground experiences since last being in one some 20 odd years ago, so maybe its just me, that I didnt really get this book. See what you think - it really might just be me.

So true
The school playground is a peculiar place where parents, especially mums, assume unnatural roles, for some strange reason. This book very nearly described the playground I know, from its location and characters to the cafe. I think many mothers will enjoy this book as they work out whom the different characters are in their own schools, and sigh in relief that they are not alone. Caroline already had two friends in her daughter's new school and that was really fortunate. I wonder how the story would have gone if she had had no friendly support at all to start with. As in the book, it is disgusting but true that mothers do manipulate their children's relationships to make other kids feel left out, and there are some women who form cliques to make life an ordeal for others. It's almost like a gang culture. Beware.