Meet Kate Reddy, fund manager and mother of two. A victim of time famine, Kate counts seconds like other women count calories. Factor in a manipulative nanny, an Australian boss who looks at Kate's breasts as if they're on special offer, a long-suffering husband, her quietly aghast in-laws, two needy children and an e-mail lover, and you have a woman juggling so many balls that some day soon something's going to hit the ground. In an uproariously funny and achingly sad novel, Allison Pearson brilliantly dramatises the dilemma of working motherhood at the start of the twenty-first century.

I can't think of a woman who wouldn't want this book India Knight, Guardian I love Kate Reddy... Her tale made me cry twice, and laugh often Independent on Sunday A very clever and frequently hilarious book Sarah Jessica Parker Very smart, very funny and very sad...it nails what it means to lots of us to be alive and female in 2011 Grazia Pearson is a very witty and moving writer. Her prose is spare and skilful, spiked with ingenious similes, waspish truisms and spot-on social observations Daily Express 20030225

Allison Pearson was born in South Wales. An award-winning journalist, she was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards for I Don't Know How She Does It. Allison has written for many magazines and newspapers including the Independent on Sunday, Observer, the Sunday Times and the London Evening Standard. She is a contributing editor to Harper's Bazaar and, for four years, she was the popular Wednesday columnist of the Daily Mail. Allison is now a staff writer at the Daily Telegraph. She lives with her family in Cambridge.