Product Description

Lovely home, lovely husband, lovely family: apart from the envy of her less contented sister everything in Dilys's rags-to-riches life is lovely, lovely, lovely. Until the day she meets a man at a railway station who is also - lovely. As she hurtles towards either her destruction or her liberation she discovers that deceit is in the blueprint of our birth, that ancient Aunts have their own dark secrets, that envious sisters have their reasons. And that when Brief Encounters meet Basic Instincts, the right choice, like truth, is rarely pure and never simple.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #244004 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
After a traumatic and poverty-stricken childhood, Dilys, the heroine of Mavis Cheek's novel The Sex Life of My Aunt, has led an ideal existence for the past 30 years. Her devoted and successful husband Francis has paid the bills, kept her in fine clothes, indulged her fantasies about writing a book. She's wanted for nothing. Until one day, after a funeral, she finds herself in tears on a railway station, and a handsome young stranger offers her a handkerchief. The innocence of this brief encounter swiftly turns into a hideous campaign of deceit, as Dilys is sucked into an intense love affair, and experiences heights of passion she'd always believed beyond her reach. But the lies she must tell to sustain it lead Dilys to make some shocking discoveries about her own past.

The incorrigible Aunt Eliza of the book's title might be described as a "national treasure". So indeed, might the novel itself. Its cast--composed of well-meaning husbands, earnest radicals in bedsits, redoubtable old ladies in Lichfield--is vivid, irresistible, yet utterly familiar. Its backdrop of local trattorias, mini-breaks and Dorset holiday cottages is as comforting as a much-loved cardigan. But this is how--like Barbara Pym before her--Mavis Cheek establishes herself as a genius of the modern morality tale. In depicting the ordinary with such vigour, she prepares us to confront the extraordinary, the sometimes brutal truths that lurk behind the most homely façade. To do so--and be hilariously funny at the same time--is a rare gift. --Matthew Baylis

Review
'Makes you laugh out loud, even as you are wincing in pain.' Daily Mail 'Energetic, witty and brimming with good sense' The Independent

From the outside, Dilys, a middle-aged wife and mother, seems to have it all: lovely home, lovely husband, lovely family. But appearances can be deceptive. The story begins with Dilys sitting on the platform of a railway station, crying over the death of a close friend. Consolation arrives in the shape of a blue-eyed stranger with a handkerchief. One thing leads to another and, before she knows it, she is having an affair with a handsome younger man. However, when she needs to provide a cover story after one of her illicit liaisons, she pretends to have met up with an elderly relative for cocktails. And so lies begin. Lie follows lie follows lie and, soon enough, things begin to get very complicated indeed. This tenth novel from Mavis Cheek is a tale of deception, describing the emotional turmoil of a woman who is trying to hide a crazy fling from her lawyer husband. With plenty of humour throughout, it also explores the idea that the potential for deception is within us all. It just takes a little motivation to bring it out. Indeed, as Dilys soon discovers, she is not the only one in the family with something to hide. The book brilliantly tells the tales that make up a family's collective history, introducing characters through detailed accounts of the major events in their lives. Especially good is the story of Eliza, the ageing aunt of the title, who has some deep dark secrets of her own. Like a modern day Brief Encounter, this is an engaging tale of secrets and lies, including well-drawn characters and plenty of wit. (Kirkus UK)

Daily Mail
'This is light, entertaining stuff, but this book is streets ahead of the usual run of romantic comedy . . . Cheek is a genuinely witty writer with the ability to make you laugh out loud.'

Customer Reviews

Totally outstanding!
You can read a huundred books and not find one as fantastic as this one. I find myself, half way through "The Sex Life of My Aunt" trying to 'pace myself' so that it will last forever, yet like the experience Mavis Cheek is describing in it, I find myself thinking about it in the bath, while lying in bed and sneaking off to quiet corners so that I can bury myself in it!

Anybody who has found themselves in the less than ideal situation of trying to juggle a wonderful husband and a wonderful lover will feel a bond with the heroine of this book. It is a sensational, hillarious, and hair raising read which in a strange way I found very comforting through associating with everything that was going on. If Mavis Cheek isn't writing this book from first hand experience then she has the greatest insight of any writer alive!

Wonderful, fantastic, READ IT!

Brilliantly wry and funny
This is the first Mavis Cheek novel I've read and I just couldn't put it down! I found myself rushing home from work to read it and sneaking a few pages whilst making the tea! This is a story of an extra-marital affair, but written in such a tongue-in-cheek and wryly funny way that it often made me laugh out loud. Dilys is a 50-something woman who is very happily married, that is until she has a chance encounter with Matthew (a much younger man) whilst grieving (on public transport) over the death of her sister . Then begins a juggling game - a game of growing lies and deceptions. Dilys suddenly finds that she doesn't love her husband as much as she thought she did and just longs to be with Matthew all the time. The guilt is very strong, however, because her husband, Francis, is a very kind and caring man and Dilys cannot bear the thought of hurting him, even though Matthew has begged her to leave Francis. The compromising positions Dilys gets herself into, especially whilst pretending to visit her very elderly aunt, are often hilarious. This is a superb read. Don't miss it!

This book is a complete delight!
Mavis Cheek has excelled herself. Always a wonderful read, her latest novel 'The Sex Life of My Aunt' is even funnier, and more cutting in its observations of the behaviour of the female of the species in her middle years, than ever. If you've ever indulged in that most wonderful, painful, uplifting and insane of experiences - an extra marital love affair - be prepared to wince with recognition at every page, just before erupting into gaffaws of delight. A must read. Begin early on a free day because you will not be able to put it down!