MAN AT THE HELM PB – NINA STIBBE

The very start of Lizzie Vogel s story. From the much-loved author of Love, Nina, discover a wildly comic, brilliantly sharp-eyed novel about one family s fall from grace. All hail a book that s funny! Barbara Trapido ***** Meet Lizzie Vogel, 9. Lizzie is concerned about her newly divorced mother; thirty-one years old and trapped in a hostile village in the English countryside with only three young children and a Labrador for company. It isn t that having a husband is good, but in 1970s rural Leicestershire, not having one is bad. The women in the village think Lizzie s mother is after their husbands – and no one will let the children into the Brownies! Worried about their mother s drinking, her (bad) playwriting and social workers sending them off to the infamous Crescent Home for Children, Lizzie and her sister embark on a misguided campaign to find their mother a new husband. LIZZIE S STORY CONTINUES IN PARADISE LODGE AND REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL! ***** [A] joyous read, full of wit and charm . . . I am already longing for Nina Stibbe s next book OBSERVER Just the right mixture of childhood innocence and incredulity for the necessary deadpan delivery of Stibbe s particular brand of comedy. Read it and be charmed INDEPENDENT A beguilingly comic blend of naivety and precociousness SUNDAY TIMES NINA STIBBE S NEW NOVEL ONE DAY I SHALL ASTONISH THE WORLD IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW