I recently received a review copy of Fiona Neill’s latest novel The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy, and I’m looking forward to some light reading!
For Lucy Sweeney, motherhood isn’t all astanga yoga and Cath Kidston prints. It has been years since the dirty washing pile was less than a metre high, months since Lucy remembered to have sex with her husband, and a week since she last did the school run wearing pyjamas. When Husband on a Short Fuse is no contest for the distractions of Sexy Domesticated Dad; Yummy Mummy No 1 has more cash flow than parenting advice; and Alpha Mum is putting a slur on your questionable domestic habits, it’s hard to remember exactly why anyone would give up a career and their sanity for three raucous sons and less than blissful domesticity. Lucy is living in a state of permanent emergency and the white lies to cover up the trail of chaos and illicit desire are about to be exposed …This is an irresistible first novel about the dilemmas of motherhood and modern marriage for those who never discovered their domestic goddess within.
I haven’t started to read the book yet, since I asked my wife to check it out for me first. But I’ve scanned through the pages, and went to the Slummy Mummy site over at Random House, and I feel I can relate–perhaps more with Sexy Domesticated Dad (minus “Sexy”) given that I hold office at home, and every morning I bring the kids to school and fetch them in the afternoon. I’m not exactly a homebody, but running a SOHO, I can say I’m probably more domesticated than most dads out there (and now I feel like a cat for being labeled such).
What exactly is a Slummy Mummy? Perhaps you can answer the Slummy Mummy quiz to see if you are one. Oh, and I took the quiz myself. And guess what! I’m a slummy mummy! LOL!
Fiona Neill is a features writer for The Times magazine and creator of author the Times’ Slummy Mummy column. Previously a foreign correspondent in Latin America, then assistant editor at Marie Claire and then The Times magazine, the author was brought up in Norfolk, she now lives in London with her husband and three children.
The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy is published by Random House in the UK and Penguin in the US.
Originally posted on July 25, 2008 @ 9:55 am
