Are We Having Fun Yet?

'A bookworm's delight' Sara Collins'Funny, warm and charming' Marian Keyes'Like butter on toast: perfect' Caitlin MoranA love letter to all those who come alive when they pull a new treasure off the shelf, stay up late reading just one more page and pack their suitcases with clothes wedged between books instead of the other way around.From well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels and other not-so-guilty pleasures Bookish brims with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations. This is an ode to the bookish places - from local libraries to bookshops big and small - and the stories that make us who we are.'Comforting, funny and moving - Bookish is wonderful to curl up with on good days and bad' Sali Hughes 'An affectionate, warm guide on the healing power of reading' i News'Mangan makes for a wonderfully incisive critic and can pick apart a George Orwell with the same perspicacity with which she can, say, a Jack Reacher' ObserverREADERS LOVE BOOKISH'A perfect read for all of us under the spellbinding influence of books!''I found myself laughing at her wit and nodding in agreement at the books she loves''Perfect book for bookworms and you'll feel as if you've found your tribe.''This is a book which will fill every bookworm's heart with joy!''A perfect read for all of us under the spellbinding influence of books!''Would again make a perfect gift for any bookish bookworm''If you love books - and I mean really, really, love them, you should buy this book.''I have never felt more seen.'

A love letter to the joys of childhood reading from Wonderland to Narnia.<BR><BR>When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one.<BR><BR>She was whisked away to Narnia - and Kirrin Island - and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. She wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy, and played by the tracks with the Railway Children. With Charlotte's Web she discovered Death and with Judy Blume it was Boys. No wonder she only left the house for her weekly trip to the library or to spend her pocket money on amassing her own at home.<BR><BR>In Bookworm, Lucy revisits her childhood reading with wit, love and gratitude. She relives our best-beloved books, their extraordinary creators, and looks at the thousand subtle ways they shape our lives. She also disinters a few forgotten treasures to inspire the next generation of bookworms and set them on their way.<BR><BR>Lucy brings the favourite characters of our collective childhoods back to life - prompting endless re-readings, rediscoveries, and, inevitably, fierce debate - and brilliantly uses them to tell her own story, that of a born, and unrepentant, bookworm.<BR><BR>'Passionate, witty, informed, and gloriously opinionated' Jacqueline Wilson author of The Story of Tracy Beaker

Shortlisted for the 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction<BR><BR>'Utterly, utterly perfect and brilliant - I think it is, simply, a new classic, and the book every woman will be able to trust to make her happy when she picks it up' - Caitlin Moran<BR><BR>'Utterly wonderful ... full of love. Enormously uplifting, funny and witty and wry' - Marian Keyes<BR><BR>'A glorious, outrageously funny retelling of E.M. Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady. At once, a celebration of the joy of family life and a cry of anguish at the utter hell of it. Laugh out loud, compulsive reading' - Nina Stibbe<BR><BR>Meet Liz: all she wants is some peace and quiet so she can read a book with her cat Henry, love of her life, by her side. But trampling all over this dream is a group of wild things also known as Liz's family. Namely:<BR><BR>Richard - a man, a husband, no serious rival to Henry.<BR>Thomas - their sensitive seven year old son, for whom life is a bed of pain already.<BR>Evie - five year old acrobat, gangster, anarchist, daughter.<BR><BR>And as if her family's demands (Where are the door keys? Are we made of plastic? Do 'ghost poos' really count?) weren't enough, Liz must also contend with the madness of parents, friends, bosses, and at least one hovering nemesis. Are We Having Fun Yet? is a year with one woman as she faces all the storms of modern life (babysitters, death, threadworms) on her epic quest for that holy grail: a moment to herself.