Product Description

Just what does it mean to be a girl? Why is it not like being a boy? And why is that a good thing? Guardian columnist Lucy Mangan lifts the lid on being female. From a daughter's place within the family ('It's a girl! What a pity!'), through the intricacies of what not to wear and who not to talk to, Brownies and breasts, the stuff you want to remember and the stuff you'd rather forget, this brilliantly funny guide is a full and frank account of how it really is different for girls. Packed with bittersweet memories and the sharpest observations from one of the brightest lights in journalism, this is the genius offspring of the bestselling How to Walk in High Heels and I Don't Know Know How She Does It. Part nostalgia, part journalism, fully fabulous: it's a glorious romp through all things female.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130067 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-23
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

India Knight, Sunday Times, 26 August 2007
'Intelligent, wonderfully written and extremely funny... It is a joyous book... Buy it for your girlfriend, who will thank you profusely.'

Synopsis
Just what does it mean to be a girl? Why is it not like being a boy? And why is that a good thing? Guardian" columnist Lucy Mangan lifts the lid on being female. From a daughter's place within the family ('It's a girl! What a pity!'), through the intricacies of what not to wear and who not to talk to,Brownies and breasts, the stuff you want to remember and the stuff you'd rather forget, this brilliantly funny guide is a full and frank account of how it really is different for girls. Packed with bittersweet memories and the sharpest observations from one of the brightest lights in journalism, this is the genius offspring of the bestsellingHow to Walk in High Heels" and I Don't Know Know How She Does It".Part nostalgia, part journalism, fully fabulous: it's a glorious romp through all things female.

From the Publisher
This is a brilliant book about being a girl, written for grown-up girls who don't want to read about the joys of flower pressing and French knitting. It's been a real pleasure to publish, and I'm going to tell you how, as a publisher, there are several ways you can spot that you've got a really good read on your hands:

1. There's a spontaneous round of applause when you announce its acquisition at the editorial meeting, and a gaggle of overexcited female publishers exclaim `I love Lucy Mangan!', even though they've never met her.
2. You begin to see just how spot-on Lucy's understanding of the female psyche is when your company's normally-sober rights director reads some early material on the train into work and laughs so hard she nearly has to get off a stop early.
3. Women in their twenties, thirties and forties flock to your office ravenous for more Mangan morsels. They stay a while to stroke the gorgeous jacket and marvel at the sparkly bits.
4. The ladies in the New Zealand office receive their sample text by email. It cleverly, and hilariously, dissects the ways of women in the workplace:
* how to keep crying in the loos to a minimum
* the preference for suicide over asking for a pay rise
* the art of giving birth in one's lunch hour so as not to appear weak in front of male colleagues.
The Kiwis gather around someone's desk - Jackanory-style - to have it read aloud to them and spend an afternoon laughing at themselves. No work gets done.
5. A finished book arrives on your desk and there's a stampede of high-heeled colleagues to your office. Under the pretext of business they're really jostling to get their grubby little paws on a freebie copy. `Go and buy your own', is your standard response. After all, that's what we're confident every discerning female will do...

Hopscotch & Handbags is the grown-up girl's guide to being female. What it does to perfection is remind us why it's so bittersweet to be a girl, but why it's always, always better than being a boy. Buy it for yourself, for your sister and your best pals.

Customer Reviews

The Main Disruption
I was at a dinner party when someone recommended this book. The hostess loved it so much she abandoned the half-served main-course and ran to fetch her (signed) copy. Within moments she was reading snippets aloud, giggling and gesticulating wildly with a serving spoon. All of the wives collapsed with laughter and the husbands gazed sadly and incomprehensively at the rapidly cooling lasagne.
A book for proper girls, who know the score. Greatly enjoyed.

yay! i'm not alone!
I never bother writing reviews because i very rarely come across anything i like enough to write one about, but this book is FANTASTIC. its witty, its charming, its brutal in its honesty, and best of all it made me feel a little less insane in a world where so many women are trying so hard to hide the crazy

Don't bother
Lucy Mangan can undoubtedly write....the question is, why is she wasting her time on this pap? And it is pap....the whole thing smacks of something cooked her between her and her publisher to make a bit of pre-Christmas cash. Slight, very slight.