Synopses & Reviews
A smart, laugh-out-loud debut novel about a deeply flawed but endearing stay-at-home mom, a book for anyone who took Helen Fieldings Bridget Jones to heart a decade ago-and now has kids.
Lucy Sweeney has three sons, a husband on a short fuse, and a tendency toward domestic disaster. It has been years since the dirty laundry pile was less than three feet high, months since she remembered to have sex, and weeks since her toddler started using the trash can as a toilet. Lucy is living in a constant state of emergency, caught between perfectionist Yummy Mummy No. 1 and competitive Alpha Mum, making it hard for her to remember exactly why she exchanged her career and sanity for less than blissful domesticity. When she begins a flirtation with Sexy Domesticated Dad, a father from the school car-pool lane, the string of white lies to cover up the trail of chaos and illicit desire starts to unravel and disaster looms.
Slummy Mummy is a hilarious novel about the dilemmas of modern marriage and motherhood for those who never discovered their inner domestic goddess. Pitch-perfect and satisfyingly smart, it does for the stay-at-home mother what Allison Pearson's blockbuster bestseller I Don't Know How She Does It did for the working mom: It offers a lovable, flawed character who resonates, entertains, and undoubtedly has it worse than you do.
Review
“Plays with the chaos and comedy of 30-something metropolitan maternity and brings it to an unexpectedly moving conclusion.”
—Anna Wintour,
Vogue “Neill bucks the chick-lit trend with prose that’s clever and endearing, and frazzled parents will love the way she nails the sticky, hair-pulling mania of domestic life.”—The Washington Post
“A deftly executed domestic comedy.”—Boston Globe
“Several cuts above the rest...witty, observant and supremely intelligent.”—Times (London)
Review
"After an uberwealthy London family gets embroiled in a financial scandal following the 2008 crash, the trusted babysitter is the one holding all the secrets. Neill’s engrossing and funny novel lives up to the titillating title."
—Entertainment Weekly review quotes
Review
"[Fiona Neill] mixes delicious high-roller tidbits with well-rendered characters who illustrate why
—and how
—the rich are different."
—People "After an uberwealthy London family gets embroiled in a financial scandal following the 2008 crash, the trusted babysitter is the one holding all the secrets. Neill’s engrossing and funny novel lives up to the titillating title."—Entertainment Weekly
“Readers expecting a salacious, lighthearted romp, as anything with the word 'nanny' in the title might suggest, will find that Neill has something more substantive and biting in mind.”—Booklist
"Neill’s engrossing tale makes for an addictive read, and one can only keep turning the pages to get to the inescapable conclusion."—Library Journal
"Neill concocts a darkly fascinating portrait of the stupid-rich, and the morally superior immigrant maids they press into service. . . . In this fast-paced, dishy morality tale, Neill also delivers a thoughtful dissection of how greed and hubris helped bring the banking industry to its knees in 2008."—Publishers Weekly
"[Neill's] portrayal of the family is happily addictive and their greed-driven downfall a little bit delicious."—Kirkus
Synopsis
Lucy Sweeney has three sons, a husband on a short fuse, and a tendency toward domestic disaster. Lucy is living in a constant state of emergency, and the white lies to cover up the trail of “Slummy Mummy” destruction are escalating. When she begins a flirtation with Sexy Domesticated Dad, disaster looms, making it hard for her to remember why she exchanged her career and sanity for this. Pitch-perfect and satisfyingly smart,
Slummy Mummy is a hilarious novel about the dilemmas of modern marriage and motherhood for those who never discovered their domestic goddess within.
Synopsis
It’s the summer of 2008. For the past decade Nick and Bryony Skinner and their four children have ridden high on the economic boom, but their luck is about to run out. Suddenly, the privileged family finds itself at the center of a financial scandal:
their Central London house is besieged by the press, Nick disappears, and Bryony and the children become virtual prisoners in their own home. And Ali, their trusted nanny, watches it all. As the babysitter, she brings a unique insider-outsider perspective to the family, seeing far more than even the family itself is capable of. But when a reporter with a personal connection to the story comes asking her for the inside scoop, will Ali remain loyal to the family who never saw her as anything other than the help? Or will she tell her side?
Written with Fiona Neill’s delicious humor and addictive style, What the Nanny Saw is a keenly observed, often comical chronicle of the urban wealthy elite, of parents who are often too busy to notice what is going on under their own noses, of children left to their own devices, and of a young nanny thrown into a role she doesn’t know how to play. It is a morality tale of our time, a tale of betrayal, the corrosive influence of too much money, and why good people sometimes do bad things.
About the Author
Fiona Neill is a novelist and a journalist.�She is the author of the novels�Slummy Mummy, based on her hugely popular column in the London Times a Sunday Times bestseller that sold in twenty-five countries, and What the Nanny Saw�. Neill lives in North London with her husband and three children.