Charlie's departure marks the end of Lucy's wonderful life. But was the idyll all that it appeared? Her gorgeous husband is in fact an irresponsible layabout. Suddenly the rules have changed, and she's got to learn them all over again if she wants to hang on.

From the author of Closure and Wasting Time, a razor-sharp, darkly funny novel which explodes the myth of having it all. 'My husband left me earlier this evening because of my crabbiness, my insomnia and my meanness with money.' Charlie's departure marks the end of Lucy's wonderful life - the one that was supposed to be her reward for being a good girl and always playing by the rules. But what has she really lost - was the idyll all that it appeared? Her gorgeous husband is in fact an irresponsible layabout who leaves because he can't handle the responsibility of a second child, and her glamorous career as a newspaper columnist takes places in the vituperative atmosphere of a struggling local rag where enemies behave like friends and friends can't be counted on. But still, it's everything Lucy thought she wanted and now she's losing it. Suddenly the rules have changed, and she's got to learn them all over again if she wants to hang on. Although with the help of North London's most handsome - and most eccentric - nanny, and an old friend who's seizing the chance to be upgraded into a lover, she begins to think that it won't that hard after all. Soon, things are going to be perfect again. Well, as perfect as they were before, anyway...