My first novel, 'The Bad Mother’s Handbook', tells the story of a year in the life of one family. There’s 17
year-old Charlotte, who’s bright and ambitious; her thirtysomething mother Karen, a bitter divorcee; and
Nan, a woman who slips between the past and the present and whose 80-year history holds secrets that
have the potential to unravel the whole household.
There were several reasons for writing this novel. Firstly I wanted to look at the way families can repeat mistakes instead of learning from them. Karen is desperate for her daughter not to get herself pregnant and throw away her educational opportunities, as she herself did at 16. Charlotte knows this – has had the message drummed into her since childhood – and believes she is too clever to get caught that way. But sometimes you can’t cheat Fate, and Charlotte soon finds she’s caught up in events that seem beyond her control.
Which brings me to the second theme of the novel; to what extent has life changed for ordinary women over the last fifty years? In TBMH there are three women who, in different decades, find themselves pregnant out of wedlock. How does society treat their dilemma? Were the good old days really so good? Finally there’s the class angle; I wanted to write a novel about what it’s like being an ordinary working mum, about a character whose background lies in that grey area between the working class and the lower middle class. This is not a glamorous or in any way fashionable stratum of society – I should know – but I thought we folks who belonged to it deserved a shout.
You can see me talking about the novel here:
'The Bad Mother’s Handbook' was Picador’s lead fiction title for 2004 and quickly became a number 1 best-seller, reprinted after just two weeks. It has since been translated into twenty two languages.
In March 2004 Radio 4 broadcast the story in ten episodes as a Book at Bedtime, with Lesley Sharp, Anne Rye and Fiona Clarke taking the roles of Karen, Nan and Charlotte. For those who enjoy listening to stories, there is an abridged version on CD by Panmacmillan.
At the end of 2004 QPD readers voted 'The Bad Mother’s Handbook' best debut novel of the year, and in April 2005 I was nominated for Best Newcomer at the British Book Awards, or Nibbies.
