A victim of time famine, thirty-five-year-old Kate counts seconds like other women count calories. As she runs between appointments, through her head spools the crazy tape-loop of every high-flying mother's life: client reports, bouncy castles, Bob The Builder, transatlantic phone calls, dental appointments, pelvic floor exercises, flights to New York, sex (too knackered), and stress-busting massages she always has to cancel (too busy). Factor in a controlling nanny, a chauvinist Australian boss, a long-suffering husband, two demanding 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. Pearson brings her sharp wit and compassionate intelligence to this hilarious and, at times, piercingly sad study of the human cost of trying to Have It All. Women everywhere are already talking about the Kate Reddy column which appears weekly in the Daily Telegraph, and recommending it to their sisters, mothers, friends and even their bewildered partners. This fictional debut by one of Britain's most gifted journalists is the subject of a movie deal with Miramax rumoured to be for almost $1million and has sold around the world, sparking bidding wars in Spain, Germany and Japan. Everyone is getting Reddy for Kate.

'It might change your life', Observer .'The kind of book you fall in love with - a grown-up novel that is hilarious, heartbreaking and brimming with the bitter-sweet tang of all our lives', Tony Parsons .'Allison Pearson is one of the stars of her generation', Evening Standard .'I can't think of a woman who wouldn't want this book', Guardian .'Her social observation is unerringly accurate...Pearson is unafraid of dealing with the big stuff...so beautifully written that it brought tears to my eyes, as well as a wry smile', Telegraph .'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

Allison Pearson is an award-winning journalist who has weekly columns in the Daily Telegraph and the Evening Standard. A founder member of BBC 2's 'Late Review', she broadcasts regularly on TV and radio. She lives in London with the New Yorker writer Anthony Lane and their two small children.