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Fourteen-year-old Emily is gloomily spending the summer with her mum’s best friend Uncle Tom, helping him renovate his house, instead of being at home hoping the gorgeous Toby will ask her out. Worse, she’s broken her phone and left her iPad at her dad’s house. How is she supposed to survive without her tech, her BFF and her social life? No one understands her despair, least of all the boomers.

Then she finds her mum’s old diary. MASSIVE CRINGE. But as Emily starts to read, she’s stunned to discover that her mum was once a teenager too. A nineties teenager called Lila MacKay, who was VERY MISUNDERSTOOD. It’s a long-forgotten era of weird fashions, TV shows and music Emily’s never heard of. There are boys too, notably cute Park Boy Tom and her mum’s dorky neighbour Weird Nicky. And as she becomes more and more invested in Lila’s teenage life, Emily begins to wonder if perhaps she and her mother are not so different after all?

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Perfect for fans of Geek Girl and readers who are that next age up from Lottie Brooks.

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Readers LOVE Lila Mackay!

“I can’t wait to find out what happens next for Lila as I know there are more diaries to read! Perfect for fans of Lottie Brooks. I was looking for a new series to get into!!” – Nia, 13

“Absolutely brilliant!”

“Every time I put it down, my 16-year-old daughter picks it up and reads it!”

“I am clearly not the demographic for this novel (but can identify greatly with it as I was a teenager in the nineties) – however, my daughter IS, and she genuinely really, really loves it!”

“A very clever idea”

When family life gives you lemons, trade them for grapes!

Mummy Ellen is on a well-earned sabbatical from work, and she has A Vision. She is going to cherish *every* moment this holiday with her Precious Moppets Peter and Jane, alongside her ride-or-die best friend, Hannah. There will be wicker baskets! Vintage bicycles! Pink sunshine wine! And not an electronic babysitter in sight.

But as she strives for her picture-perfect “Ultimate Family Summer” in the sun-kissed bliss of her almost-chateau, reality crashes the party. With small feral hell-beasts to keep alive on the daily, and Hannah suddenly and mysteriously MIA, wine o’clock gets earlier and earlier as each day crawls by.

Can she keep The Vision alive without resorting to nightly beige ‘freezer tapas’ (aka guilt-flavoured chicken nuggets)? Or will she reach the end of her Gentle Parenting book and her tether as her dream holiday descends into a nightmare?

Join Ellen on her uproarious quest to salvage one of the #18PreciousSummers, or simply find her Grape Escape.

Tis’ the season to get trollied!

Mummy has always loved Christmas. Sure, the kids turn into demons, the dinner gets burnt to a crisp and Aunt Louisa’s general staggering inappropriateness sends Mummy reaching for the nearest maximum-strength festive tipple, but nevertheless, for her, Christmas is always special.

This year, she wants nothing more than to perfectly fig up the pudding and sit by the fire reading aloud from A Christmas Carol to a rapt, rosy-cheeked audience. But, just like all Mummy’s best-laid plans, this year’s Festive Vision is in danger of being totally derailed by her chaotic family. There’s not much chance of any action under the mistletoe, and the kids are just not playing ball.

Can Mummy find her silver lining after all and bring the whole family together for one moment of harmony, so they can finally proclaim ‘Verily You Are the Queen of Christmas’? Or should she get stuck into the festive spirits and just let it all go?

Tis’ the season to get trollied!

Mummy has always loved Christmas. Sure, the kids turn into demons, the dinner gets burnt to a crisp and Aunt Louisa’s general staggering inappropriateness sends Mummy reaching for the nearest maximum-strength festive tipple, but nevertheless, for her, Christmas is always special.

This year, she wants nothing more than to perfectly fig up the pudding and sit by the fire reading aloud from A Christmas Carol to a rapt, rosy-cheeked audience. But, just like all Mummy’s best-laid plans, this year’s Festive Vision is in danger of being totally derailed by her chaotic family. There’s not much chance of any action under the mistletoe, and the kids are just not playing ball.

Can Mummy find her silver lining after all and bring the whole family together for one moment of harmony, so they can finally proclaim ‘Verily You Are the Queen of Christmas’? Or should she get stuck into the festive spirits and just let it all go?

“God, she’s funny” – Jilly Cooper

‘Oh, for f*ck’s sake’ muttered Claire under her breath, as she opened the fridge to see what she could find for a no effort dinner. The children continued to fight behind her. They regarded any form of fish not encased in breadcrumbs as toxic, and were resistant enough to the delicious homemade fishfingers Claire had made for them, insisting they much preferred Captain Birdseye’s version. White wine was starting to look like quite an appealing dinner actually.   Maybe just a small glass.

‘Are you having wine, Mum?   You know you’re not supposed to have wine every night.   We did about alcohol units at school.   That’s quite a big glass of wine, how many units do you think are in it?’

‘Bet the bastards didn’t tell you that wine is remarkably good at cancelling out whining though, did they?’ muttered Claire.

Claire’s family has gone nuclear. Her precious moppets keep calling Childline when she feeds them broccoli, she’s utterly Ottolenghied out at weekends, and her darling husband is having an affair with her best friend.

The question isn’t whether she needs a glass of wine, but is there one big enough?

Enter the Sauvignon Sisterhood, a new set of friends brought together by a shared love of liquid therapy. Together they might just be able to convince Claire that, like a good bottle of red, life really can get better with age. Or at least there’s more to it than the joy of an M&S non-iron school uniform.