'Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart.' Ruth JonesNatalie and Carl are newlyweds, but the honeymoon period is over already. Carl has just announced he has bought their first home at auction without telling Natalie where it is, never mind showing her a picture of it. Natalie is horrified to discover that the dream home is in Little Wyford, mere minutes away from Carl's ex-wife Antonia. And to make matters worse, Antonia's palatial country mansion has a fully-functioning roof (and a heated swimming pool!), unlike the ramshackle cottage Carl has bought for them... Antonia is Little Wyford's Queen Bee, mistress of the book club, organiser of the Christmas Fair and leader of the ladies-who-lunch. No matter how hard she tries, Natalie just doesn't fit in, and when Antonia insists on referring to Carl as 'Our Husband', Natalie's dreams of happily-ever-after take another nose dive. Second-hand furniture has much to recommend it, especially when doing up a country cottage, second-hand clothes can be ever-so chic, but second-hand husbands are proving to be a very bad idea indeed... Can Natalie ever escape the label of Wife Number Two or is she destined to share her husband forever? Hilariously funny, wickedly witty, but with a heart of gold and a warmth and wisdom that are all its own, A Second-Hand Husband is Claire Calman's tour de force. 'So engrossing, you'll read until four in the morning!' Jilly Cooper 'With her trademark warmth and wit, Calman unpacks the secrets everyone is keeping' Wendy Holden Praise for Claire Calman: 'Don't take this hilarious, touching and very clever novel to bed if you've got to rise very early the next day, because it is so engrossing, you'll read until four in the morning. Claire Calman's plot twists and turns with endless surprises...' Jilly Cooper 'I really, really enjoyed it - I devoured it over four nights. Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart. The characters were so well defined - I felt I knew them intimately. And the cottage and the pond and village - all the locations in fact were so beautifully depicted, I was completely transported there! But also the dialogue was a joy and such great humour - I laughed out loud on many occasions.' Ruth Jones 'A beautifully observed tale of new love and blending families, with a heroine I was rooting for from the very first page.' Shari Low on A Second-Hand Husband 'A beautiful book, so compassionate... and ultimately very hopeful. I enjoyed it hugely.' Marian Keyes 'A clever, bittersweet, uplifting novel' Sophie Kinsella 'Writing with proper heart' Rachel Joyce 'The characterisation is brilliant, and the astute storytelling, punctuated by stiletto-sharp wit, produces an effervescent and spirit-lifting story.' Sunday Mirror 'A poignant and beautifully articulated tale of love and loss, memory and forgetting, grief and guilt, new love and letting go. I was engrossed, often tearful, and finally, uplifted.' Isobel Wolff 'Simply wonderful. I was totally enchanted, devoured it in a day, and have been raving about it ever since.' Fiona Walker

'Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart.' Ruth JonesNatalie and Carl are newlyweds, but the honeymoon period is over already. Carl has just announced he has bought their first home at auction without telling Natalie where it is, never mind showing her a picture of it. Natalie is horrified to discover that the dream home is in Little Wyford, mere minutes away from Carl's ex-wife Antonia. And to make matters worse, Antonia's palatial country mansion has a fully-functioning roof (and a heated swimming pool!), unlike the ramshackle cottage Carl has bought for them... Antonia is Little Wyford's Queen Bee, mistress of the book club, organiser of the Christmas Fair and leader of the ladies-who-lunch. No matter how hard she tries, Natalie just doesn't fit in, and when Antonia insists on referring to Carl as 'Our Husband', Natalie's dreams of happily-ever-after take another nose dive. Second-hand furniture has much to recommend it, especially when doing up a country cottage, second-hand clothes can be ever-so chic, but second-hand husbands are proving to be a very bad idea indeed... Can Natalie ever escape the label of Wife Number Two or is she destined to share her husband forever? Hilariously funny, wickedly witty, but with a heart of gold and a warmth and wisdom that are all its own, A Second-Hand Husband is Claire Calman's tour de force. 'So engrossing, you'll read until four in the morning!' Jilly Cooper 'With her trademark warmth and wit, Calman unpacks the secrets everyone is keeping' Wendy Holden Praise for Claire Calman: 'Don't take this hilarious, touching and very clever novel to bed if you've got to rise very early the next day, because it is so engrossing, you'll read until four in the morning. Claire Calman's plot twists and turns with endless surprises...' Jilly Cooper 'I really, really enjoyed it - I devoured it over four nights. Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart. The characters were so well defined - I felt I knew them intimately. And the cottage and the pond and village - all the locations in fact were so beautifully depicted, I was completely transported there! But also the dialogue was a joy and such great humour - I laughed out loud on many occasions.' Ruth Jones 'A beautifully observed tale of new love and blending families, with a heroine I was rooting for from the very first page.' Shari Low on A Second-Hand Husband 'A beautiful book, so compassionate... and ultimately very hopeful. I enjoyed it hugely.' Marian Keyes 'A clever, bittersweet, uplifting novel' Sophie Kinsella 'Writing with proper heart' Rachel Joyce 'The characterisation is brilliant, and the astute storytelling, punctuated by stiletto-sharp wit, produces an effervescent and spirit-lifting story.' Sunday Mirror 'A poignant and beautifully articulated tale of love and loss, memory and forgetting, grief and guilt, new love and letting go. I was engrossed, often tearful, and finally, uplifted.' Isobel Wolff 'Simply wonderful. I was totally enchanted, devoured it in a day, and have been raving about it ever since.' Fiona Walker

'Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart.' Ruth JonesNatalie and Carl are newlyweds, but the honeymoon period is over already. Carl has just announced he has bought their first home at auction without telling Natalie where it is, never mind showing her a picture of it. Natalie is horrified to discover that the dream home is in Little Wyford, mere minutes away from Carl's ex-wife Antonia. And to make matters worse, Antonia's palatial country mansion has a fully-functioning roof (and a heated swimming pool!), unlike the ramshackle cottage Carl has bought for them... Antonia is Little Wyford's Queen Bee, mistress of the book club, organiser of the Christmas Fair and leader of the ladies-who-lunch. No matter how hard she tries, Natalie just doesn't fit in, and when Antonia insists on referring to Carl as 'Our Husband', Natalie's dreams of happily-ever-after take another nose dive. Second-hand furniture has much to recommend it, especially when doing up a country cottage, second-hand clothes can be ever-so chic, but second-hand husbands are proving to be a very bad idea indeed... Can Natalie ever escape the label of Wife Number Two or is she destined to share her husband forever? Hilariously funny, wickedly witty, but with a heart of gold and a warmth and wisdom that are all its own, A Second-Hand Husband is Claire Calman's tour de force. 'So engrossing, you'll read until four in the morning!' Jilly Cooper 'With her trademark warmth and wit, Calman unpacks the secrets everyone is keeping' Wendy Holden Praise for Claire Calman: 'Don't take this hilarious, touching and very clever novel to bed if you've got to rise very early the next day, because it is so engrossing, you'll read until four in the morning. Claire Calman's plot twists and turns with endless surprises...' Jilly Cooper 'I really, really enjoyed it - I devoured it over four nights. Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart. The characters were so well defined - I felt I knew them intimately. And the cottage and the pond and village - all the locations in fact were so beautifully depicted, I was completely transported there! But also the dialogue was a joy and such great humour - I laughed out loud on many occasions.' Ruth Jones 'A beautifully observed tale of new love and blending families, with a heroine I was rooting for from the very first page.' Shari Low on A Second-Hand Husband 'A beautiful book, so compassionate... and ultimately very hopeful. I enjoyed it hugely.' Marian Keyes 'A clever, bittersweet, uplifting novel' Sophie Kinsella 'Writing with proper heart' Rachel Joyce 'The characterisation is brilliant, and the astute storytelling, punctuated by stiletto-sharp wit, produces an effervescent and spirit-lifting story.' Sunday Mirror 'A poignant and beautifully articulated tale of love and loss, memory and forgetting, grief and guilt, new love and letting go. I was engrossed, often tearful, and finally, uplifted.' Isobel Wolff 'Simply wonderful. I was totally enchanted, devoured it in a day, and have been raving about it ever since.' Fiona Walker

They wanted to get away from it all - but they brought it all with them It should have been the perfect holiday: lazy days with friends in a rambling old house right on the beach. But when one family drops out and Kath invites her brother and father along instead, everything starts to unravel. All Kath wants is to have sex with her husband without a small child bursting in and demanding toast and Marmite. Her brother Rob wants to find out whether he has a hope in hell with the woman he loves. Giles wants to find a way to get closer to his daughter, while eight-year-old Anna just wants to be a mermaid. And, at the heart of it all is Miranda - beautiful, bold and baffling Miranda - who wants nothing more than to survive the week without anyone suspecting the truth...

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO GROW UP...This is the story of SCOTT, who finds his belongings outside in a bin bag one day and realises he may have made a Big Mistake GAIL, who wishes her husband were under guarantee so she could send him back and get a refund NAT, who discovers that growing up isn't all it's cracked up to be ROSIE, who just wants her Dad back - or if not, then at least some new glitter nail polish. Four lives, one story: love, loss and learning to be a grown-up. What readers are saying about Lessons for a Sunday Father: 'This is the third Claire Calman book I've read, and I've loved every one of them.' 'This is sexy, funny and just a little bit good!!!' 'Enjoyed it from start to finish.'

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO GROW UP...This is the story of SCOTT, who finds his belongings outside in a bin bag one day and realises he may have made a Big Mistake GAIL, who wishes her husband were under guarantee so she could send him back and get a refund NAT, who discovers that growing up isn't all it's cracked up to be ROSIE, who just wants her Dad back - or if not, then at least some new glitter nail polish. Four lives, one story: love, loss and learning to be a grown-up. What readers are saying about Lessons for a Sunday Father: 'This is the third Claire Calman book I've read, and I've loved every one of them.' 'This is sexy, funny and just a little bit good!!!' 'Enjoyed it from start to finish.'

Sex. Yes. She remembered that.Wasn't that the thing that happened somewhere between the talking-and-going-out-to-dinner bit and the sobbing-and-eating-too-many-biscuits bit? Still, Bella was sure she could handle some -preferably before her as yet unopened packet of condoms reached their expiry date. She must be practically a virgin again by now, all sealed over like pierced ears if you don't wear earrings for too long. But the 'L' word? Uh-huh. No way. She never wanted to hear it again. There were things in her past which needed to be put well away, like the 27 boxes of clutter she'd brought from her old flat. And having changed her job, her town, her entire life - the one thing she wasn't about to change was her mind. What readers are saying about Love is a Four-Letter Word 'After I finished, I immediately flipped it over and started reading parts of it again.' 'The shock within the book was a complete tearjerker and I thoroughly sympathised.' 'Like all the best comic novelists, Calman crams her perky narrative with a host of highly diverting characters to surround her beleaguered heroine.'

They wanted to get away from it all - but they brought it all with them...It should have been the perfect holiday: lazy days with friends in a rambling old house right on the beach. But when one family drops out and Kath invites her brother and father along instead, everything starts to unravel. All Kath wants is to have sex with her husband without a small child bursting in and demanding toast and Marmite. Her brother Rob wants to find out whether he has a hope in hell with the woman he loves. Giles wants to find a way to get closer to his daughter, while eight-year-old Anna just wants to be a mermaid. And, at the heart of it all is Miranda - beautiful, bold and baffling Miranda - who wants nothing more than to survive the week without anyone suspecting the truth... What readers are saying about Cross my Heart and Hope to Die: 'I thought I had figured out Miranda, and was pleased to be proved wrong. I like a novel to be a little unpredictable, and was not disappointed.' 'This is a very warm and observant read, cheerful, honest and full of human expectation.' 'I had my own theories and they certainly weren't all right...'

Sex. Yes. She remembered that.Wasn't that the thing that happened somewhere between the talking-and-going-out-to-dinner bit and the sobbing-and-eating-too-many-biscuits bit? Still, Bella was sure she could handle some -preferably before her as yet unopened packet of condoms reached their expiry date. She must be practically a virgin again by now, all sealed over like pierced ears if you don't wear earrings for too long. But the 'L' word? Uh-huh. No way. She never wanted to hear it again. There were things in her past which needed to be put well away, like the 27 boxes of clutter she'd brought from her old flat. And having changed her job, her town, her entire life - the one thing she wasn't about to change was her mind. What readers are saying about Love is a Four-Letter Word 'After I finished, I immediately flipped it over and started reading parts of it again.' 'The shock within the book was a complete tearjerker and I thoroughly sympathised.' 'Like all the best comic novelists, Calman crams her perky narrative with a host of highly diverting characters to surround her beleaguered heroine.'

'A beautiful book, so compassionate... and ultimately very hopeful. I enjoyed it hugely.' Marian Keyes'A clever, bittersweet, uplifting novel' Sophie Kinsella 'Writing with proper heart' Rachel Joyce It's not easy being a grown-up, but Eleanor hoped she'd be better at it by now...When Eleanor waves her daughter off for a gap-year trip, she finds herself stuck as a satellite wife, spinning in faithful orbit around her domineering husband, with only her clever but judgmental father Conrad for comfort. Andrew isn't mastering the art of growing up either. But when he finds his belongings dumped in bin bags on the drive, even he can see that his girlfriend is hinting he should move out. With no other options, he moves back in with his parents. Backing onto their garden lives artist Cecilia, living in chaotic clutter and dreaming of her ex-lovers, still acting like a stroppy teenager at the age of 66. Four lives are drawn together by long-buried secrets of the past, and it is time for them all to grow up... before it's too late. What readers are saying about Growing Up for Beginners: 'The characterisation is brilliant, and the astute storytelling, punctuated by stiletto-sharp wit, produces an effervescent and spirit-lifting story.' Sunday Mirror 'A poignant and beautifully articulated tale of love and loss, memory and forgetting, grief and guilt, new love and letting go. I was engrossed, often tearful, and finally, uplifted.' Isobel Wolff 'Simply wonderful. I was totally enchanted, devoured it in a day, and have been raving about it ever since.' Fiona Walker

'A beautiful book, so compassionate... and ultimately very hopeful. I enjoyed it hugely.' Marian Keyes'A clever, bittersweet, uplifting novel' Sophie Kinsella 'Writing with proper heart' Rachel Joyce It's not easy being a grown-up, but Eleanor hoped she'd be better at it by now...When Eleanor waves her daughter off for a gap-year trip, she finds herself stuck as a satellite wife, spinning in faithful orbit around her domineering husband, with only her clever but judgmental father Conrad for comfort. Andrew isn't mastering the art of growing up either. But when he finds his belongings dumped in bin bags on the drive, even he can see that his girlfriend is hinting he should move out. With no other options, he moves back in with his parents. Backing onto their garden lives artist Cecilia, living in chaotic clutter and dreaming of her ex-lovers, still acting like a stroppy teenager at the age of 66. Four lives are drawn together by long-buried secrets of the past, and it is time for them all to grow up... before it's too late. What readers are saying about Growing Up for Beginners: 'The characterisation is brilliant, and the astute storytelling, punctuated by stiletto-sharp wit, produces an effervescent and spirit-lifting story.' Sunday Mirror 'A poignant and beautifully articulated tale of love and loss, memory and forgetting, grief and guilt, new love and letting go. I was engrossed, often tearful, and finally, uplifted.' Isobel Wolff 'Simply wonderful. I was totally enchanted, devoured it in a day, and have been raving about it ever since.' Fiona Walker