Hey Yeah Right Get A Life

Helen Simpson's third collection is a bold, honest exploration of the trials and the rewards of motherhood. Her stories are - for those who, like me, recognise the truth in every word - like a reprieve... Sharp, poetic and marvellously witty Kate Kellaway, ObserverHere are tales of a highflyer stuck at an interminable Burns Night celebration, increasingly aware of the babysitter waiting for her at home; an exhausted mother longing for adult conversation but whose son unwittingly precludes it; and a teenage girl whose fraught encounter with a harried mum of one brings newfound appreciation for her own capable mother of four. Most strikingly of all we meet Dorrie, whose efforts to calm her tinderbox of a family leave her struggling to contain her own emotions. Hey Yeah Right Get a Life is a singular achievement: relatable, perceptive and utterly poignant. It's a brilliant, painful, funny and courageous book Esther Freud, Guardian