1997: the year Blair was elected, and Diana died; and the year that changed everything for Charlotte, Karen and Nan.

Charlotte is doing her 'A'-levels. And she's pregnant. Karen, her mother, is thirty-three; now she's about to be a grandmother. How chuffed is she with that? And then there is Nan, who isn't so bothered about her granddaughter's pregnancy -- she has other things on her mind. Where is she, again?

The Bad Mother's Handbook is the story of one year in the lives of three unforgettable women, none of whom can quite believe how things have turned out. Both hilarious and wise, it is a clear-eyed look at motherhood -- and childhood -- from the moment the condom breaks to the moment you file for divorce or, more optimistically, from the moment you hear your baby's first cry to the moment you realize that there are as many sorts of mother as there are children, and that love sometimes is the most important thing of all.