Screams is Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s idiosyncratic and gently funny take on the modern world. She pinpoints all those small things that irritate, but which have a disproportionate effect on our wellbeing (for example, agonising waits for HMRC while stuck in a loop playing the Four Seasons; deep-seated recycling fears; friends that gaslight you with too many xxxs) and also takes pleasure in the small victories that bring surprising joy (lunch from leftovers and finding a miraculous parking space against all odds).

‘Witty, clever and warm-hearted’ The Times

‘Maxtone Graham [has a] unique blend of high comedy and shrewd social observation’ Spectator

‘Terrific’ Daily Telegraph

Drawn from real life, from interviews with women from all sections of society who have ever had a job, this book is a portrait of British women’s working lives from 1950, through cardigans and pearls, via mini-skirts and bottom-pinching, to shoulder pads and the ping of the first emails (early 1990s), never forgetting overalls, aprons and uniforms.

Graham conveys the full range of experience: to convey the flavour and atmosphere of workplaces in all their character: the jollities as well as the drudgeries, the good men as well as the vile ones, the nasty women as well as the heroines, the office crushes and romances, the daily drudgery, the lunch hours, the parties, the great piles of paper all over the place, the family-feel of workplaces, the daily burden of trying to run a household and family as well: in short, to look at all facets of this rich slice of British life.

‘Witty, clever and warm-hearted’ The Times

‘Maxtone Graham [has a] unique blend of high comedy and shrewd social observation’ Spectator

‘Terrific’ Daily Telegraph

Drawn from real life, from interviews with women from all sections of society who have ever had a job, this book is a portrait of British women’s working lives from 1950, through cardigans and pearls, via mini-skirts and bottom-pinching, to shoulder pads and the ping of the first emails (early 1990s), never forgetting overalls, aprons and uniforms.

Graham conveys the full range of experience: to convey the flavour and atmosphere of workplaces in all their character: the jollities as well as the drudgeries, the good men as well as the vile ones, the nasty women as well as the heroines, the office crushes and romances, the daily drudgery, the lunch hours, the parties, the great piles of paper all over the place, the family-feel of workplaces, the daily burden of trying to run a household and family as well: in short, to look at all facets of this rich slice of British life.

When I asked a group of girls who had been at Hatherop Castle in the 1960s whether the school had had a lab in those days they gave me a blank look. ‘A laboratory?’ I expanded, hoping to jog their memories. ‘Oh that kind of lab!’ one of them said. ‘I thought you meant a Labrador.’

‘The cruel teachers. The pashes on other girls. The gossip. The giggles. The awful food. The homesickness. The friendships made for life. The shivering cold. Games of lacrosse, and cricket.

‘The most brilliant, hilarious book. My book of the year’ India Knight

‘A wonderful book’ Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday