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  • The Bad Mother's Handbook
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  • Mothers and Daughters
  • Before She Was Mine
  • Something Only We Know
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The Bad Mother's Handbook

My first novel, The Bad Mother’s Handbook, tells the story of a year in the life of one family.
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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.
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And then there's Daniel...
 
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 Pan Macmillan.
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In 2007, The Bad Mother’s Handbook was broadcast as an ITV Drama starring Catherine Tate, Anne Reid, Rob Pattinson, Holliday Grainger, Steve Pemberton and Steve John Shepherd. You can still catch the film on DVD.
Buy The Bad Mother's Handbook here: ​​tinyurl.com/yap25f3v
Buy the DVD here: tinyurl.com/y97d5hjl
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“…extremely enjoyable; funny, perceptive and cleverly told…a well-crafted book that will be life-affirming and popular.”
Guardian

“…a really cracking read …brilliantly unwinsome.”
Sunday Times

“It’s such a grabby title and the book is full of quirky ideas…[it’s] both perceptive and funny.”
Jennie Bond; My Six Best Books in the Express

“I had the same feeling reading this as I did Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum. It is very special. Related in the different voices of the three generations of women living together through one momentous year, it has a north country lilt and an infectious style that really captures the period, for although we only travel a contemporary year, in reflection and flashbacks we travel some three-quarters of a century. Life, circumstances, attitudes and issues change but the spirit of family remains across the generations. I cannot praise it highly enough.”
Sarah Broadhurst in The Bookseller
Photos from the ITV adaptation
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​For more images, check out the Bad Mothers Pinterest page:
 www.pinterest.co.uk/volewriter/bank-top-home-of-the-bad-mothers-handbook/
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