{"product_id":"man-at-the-helm-9780241967805","title":"Man at the Helm","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe very start of Lizzie Vogel''s story. From the much-loved author of \u003ci\u003eLove, Nina\u003c\/i\u003e, discover a wildly comic, brilliantly sharp-eyed novel about one family''s fall from grace\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''All hail a book that''s \u003ci\u003efunny!'' \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eBarbara Trapido\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e*****\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Meet Lizzie Vogel, 9. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLizzie is concerned about her newly divorced mother; thirty-one years old and trapped in a hostile village in the English countryside with only three young children and a Labrador for company. It isn''t that having a husband is good, but in 1970s rural Leicestershire, not having one is bad. The women in the village think Lizzie''s mother is after their husbands - and no one will let the children into the Brownies!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWorried about their mother''s drinking, her (bad) playwriting and social workers sending them off to the infamous Crescent Home for Children, Lizzie and her sister embark on a misguided campaign to find their mother a new husband.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLIZZIE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eI can't remember a book that made me laugh more\u003c\/b\u003e . . . \u003ci\u003eMan at the Helm\u003c\/i\u003e is a winner - it even trumps \u003ci\u003eLove, Nina\u003c\/i\u003e * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eA wicked anatomising of a dysfunctional family . . . \u003cb\u003eBuoyantly comic: farcical yet tender, rude with a forgiving sweetness\u003c\/b\u003e * Spectator *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRead it and be charmed.\u003c\/b\u003e Just the right mixture of childhood innocence and incredulity for the necessary deadpan delivery of Stibbe's particular brand of comedy * Independent *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAll hail a book that's \u003ci\u003efunny!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e -- Barbara Trapido\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e[A] joyous read, full of wit and charm\u003c\/b\u003e . . .\u003cb\u003e I am already longing for Nina Stibbe's next book\u003c\/b\u003e * Express *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA beguilingly comic blend of naivety and precociousness\u003c\/b\u003e * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eWithin a few pages I was completely caught up in the lives of Lizzie and her family . . . \u003cb\u003eI couldn't have loved it more\u003c\/b\u003e -- Lisa Jewell\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFantastic. Comical, moving and brilliantly evocative of British childhood\u003c\/b\u003e * Glamour *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis book is very, very funny.\u003c\/b\u003e Stibbe has a fine eye for absurdity, and her writing has an unforced charm. [And] there is real darkness here, which makes the humour shimmer all the more * Independent on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eLizzie's voice is \u003cb\u003econvincingly childlike but also confidently witty\u003c\/b\u003e . . . What is most moving here - and what makes the book most similar to \u003ci\u003eLove, Nina\u003c\/i\u003e - is its celebration of the happiness possible within the family.\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eStibbe's feat is to remain unsentimentally barbed while subtly and triumphantly demonstrating the value of the kind of understated love found within the strangest and least obviously functional families\u003c\/b\u003e * Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eFans of \u003ci\u003eLove, Nina \u003c\/i\u003ewill not be disappointed.\u003cb\u003e Amusing\u003c\/b\u003e, the writing is never less than \u003cb\u003eaccomplished\u003c\/b\u003e * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis densely populated coming-of-age story (for both mother and children) has retained and even expanded on Stibbe's signature antic charm \u003c\/b\u003e... The appeal of Stibbe's novel lies less in plotting than in the way she shades a sequence of comic vignettes with seriously sad undertones. It's not too much of a stretch to conclude that \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMan at the Helm\u003c\/i\u003e, with its jauntily matter-of-fact social satire, wouldn't be out of place on the same shelf as \u003ci\u003eCold Comfort Farm\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eI Capture the Castle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e * New York Times *\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733398499671,"sku":"9780241967805","price":9.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780241967805.jpg?v=1719999999","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/man-at-the-helm-9780241967805","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}