Winner of the Guardian First Book Award

Outright rapture -- Clive James Lucy Ellmann does write a lovely novel ... an enchanting, enchanted book -- Fay Weldon A triumph ... there isn't a sentimental evasion or a dull bit of writing in the book ... it is painful to read but also exhilarating ... Lucy Ellmann is an original Guardian A wild book, in which angst-ridden confessions are interrupted by excerpts from cook books, authoritarian healthy-eating guides, pretentious theses on modern art, officious radio sex-advice shows, diaries, suicide notes, and pauses for American ice-cream and Rich Tea biscuits. Even the index breaks the rules ... Thanks to its spirited author (the story) is funny in spite of itself - and refreshingly unguarded Observer

Born in Illinois, Lucy Ellmann was dragged to England as a teenager. Her first novel, Sweet Desserts, won the Guardian Fiction Prize. It was followed by Varying Degrees of Hopelessness, Man or Mango? A Lament, Dot in the Universe and Doctors & Nurses and, most recently, Mimi. She now lives in Edinburgh.