The Bad Mother's Handbook

by Lesley Sharp (Reader), Lesley Sharp (Reader), Lesley Sharp (Reader), Kate Long (Author), Joanna Wake (Reader), Naomi Radcliffe (Reader)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $4.25

  The story of three generations of women - grandmother, mother and daughter - narrated from their separate perspectives, and showing the complex relationships that exist between them

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $3.29

  The Bad Mother's Handbook is the story of a year in the lives of Charlotte, Karen and Nan, none of whom can quite believe how things have turned out. Why is it all so difficult? Why do the most ridiculous mistakes have the most disastrous consequences? When are you too old to throw up in a flowerbed after too much vodka? When are you too young to be a mother? Both hilarious and wise, it is a clear-eyed look at motherhood - and childhood - in its many guises, from the moment the condom breaks to the moment you file for divorce or, more optimistically, from the moment you hear your baby's first cry to the moment you realize that there are as many sorts of mother as there are children, and that love sometimes is the most important thing of all.

  Praise for The Bad Mother's Handbook:

  'A really cracking read' India Knight, Sunday Times

  'Extremely enjoyable: funny, perceptive and cleverly told' Guardian

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $3.29

  Why is it all so difficult? Why do the most ridiculous mistakes have the most disastrous consequences? When are you too old to throw up in a flowerbed after drinking too much vodka? When are you too young to have a child? Karen is both a mother and a daughter, but wants to be so much more besides. Searching for her past, trying to secure her future, struggling with Nan's forgetfulness and unpredictability, as well as Charlotte's moods and teenage attitude, she finds herself caught in the middle, but also charged with holding her family together.

  Engaging and intelligent, The Bad Mother's Handbook is a matter-of-fact look at the intricacies of relationships and relatives, and an important reminder that while there are as many sorts of mother as there are children, it is love, not blood, that makes a family.