Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41756 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Mirror
'Family life and strife get a good seeing-to in this sharply observed drama ... Addictive. One to shout about'

Observer
'Firmly attacks the myth of happy families with characteristic acerbic humour ... A good, light read, with some brutally funny lines'

Synopsis
Meet the Dobsons and the Jamiesons: two ordinary families on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Joe Dobson left his wife and kids when his young girlfriend, Nina discovered she was pregnant. Now he feels like a clich and Nina feels like a drudge, swapping her wild nights out with friends for mild nights in wiping baby sick off the carpet. So when Joe announces that he's booked a week's luxury holiday in Italy, Nina is thrilled - until she realises Joe's kids Saul and Tabitha are coming along for the ride. Meanwhile Guy Jamieson is sure this will be his last family holiday; he plans to leave his wife Alice on his return. Guy is a high- powered advertising director, and Alice - with her elasticated skirts, inedible mince suppers and unshaven legs - just doesn't fit his image. But Alice has a secret plan of her own: to have another baby...Funny, smart and refreshingly honest, "Having A Lovely Time" is all about infidelity, jealousy, resentment, recriminations and, just occasionally, love.

Customer Reviews

Nasty
This book is simply a sticky, stinky, yucky blob of nastyness. By golly, there isn't a single pleasurable character in the whole book, and the one I'd save, poor Alice, well, it's the ultimate victim of the author's nastiest joke. I was disgusted by the extravagant largesse of four letter world the author bestowes on the unlucky reader,to say nothing of the profusion of disgusting body function's detailed descriptions. Foul and nasty, nasty, nasty,

Do `happy families' even exist?
On the plus side, this book is both honest and funny, however, the characters are a bit caricature-ish, and it's just too obvious which ones you're supposed to like. Otherwise, a fun read.

I had a fabulous time!
I really did, reading this book made me laugh and cry. Jenny Eclair has really rounded the characters out nicely and you really feel for the underdogs in the book.

I loved Camberwell Beauty too - and I seriously hope Jenny has another book in her somewhere!