My Life On a Plate - Softcover

Knight, India

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241951798 ISBN 13: 9780241951798

Publisher: Penguin, 2011

Synopsis

My Life on a Plate is the hilarious and moving first novel by bestselling author India Knight.

Does secretly fantasizing about buying slut shoes and see-through tops make you a Bad Mother? What about wearing pyjama bottoms on the school run?

Clare Hutt (known to herself as Jabba the) has put her foxy single days very much behind her (rather like her cellulite), and has Got Her Man.

She has a nice house, adorable children who only annoy her 90 per cent of the time, a large, eccentric and charming family, and an attractive (but increasingly mysterious) husband. And she gets to have regular sex . . . well, ish. Anyway, what the hell, it's only loins . . .

Everyone wants to be married - don't they?

'Made me laugh out loud. Does for divorcees what Bridget Jones's Diary did for singletons' Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph

'Brilliantly funny' Vogue

'A sharp, witty novel . . .. groundbreaking in women's fiction in that it attempts to investigate modern marriage: what it does to women, to their sex drive and their sense of self' Marie Claire

'That rare thing: the lightweight comic novel that is well written, neatly constructed and actually funny' Guardian

'A comic tour de force' Daily Telegraph

India Knight is the author of four novels: My Life on a Plate, Don't You Want Me, Comfort and Joy and Mutton. Her non-fiction books include The Shops, the bestselling diet book Neris and India's Idiot-Proof Diet, the accompanying bestselling cookbook Neris and India's Idiot-Proof Diet Cookbook and The Thrift Book. India is a columnist for the Sunday Times and lives in London with her three children.Follow India on Twitter @indiaknight or on her blog at http://indiaknight.tumblr.com.

About this title

Review:

Some would say Clara (Jabba the) Hutt has achieved "the goal": husband, house and 2.4 children. She is a "smug married." However, there's always a downside and Clara's not-so-perfect life consists of carting her boys to and from school, giving her a chance to see how the truly flawless mothers exist; trying to decipher, after eight years of marriage, whether her mysterious husband actually exercises his bodily functions or not; and, of course, her eccentric family, which consists of a thin, beautiful, insane mother and a string of ex-step-daddies, plus ex-step-siblings. Added to the Clara cocktail are her swinging single friends, the perfect mothers who turn out to be Jezebels in M & S clothing, and the strange Irish dancer who she must interview, renamed by her five year old as "bloody Dunphy."

Hailed as the Bridget Jones of the 21st century, India Knight's first novel My Life on a Plate is a good giggle. If anything, it is the inverse of Bridget Jones since Clara Hutt starts with everything and heads in completely the opposite direction. Funny, warm and full of "does my bum look big in this?" sentiment, Clara ponders the question: "everyone wants to be married--don't they?" --Neena Dutta

Review:

A wickedly funny and painfully honest comic novel. It's a triumph (Sue Townsend)

Made me laugh out loud. Does for divorcees what Bridget Jones's Diary did for singletons (Lynn Barber Daily Telegraph)

The funniest novel of the year. A brilliant take on modern matrimony (Evening Standard)

A sharp, witty novel...groundbreaking in women's fiction in that it attempts to investigate modern marriage: what it does to women, to their sex drive and their sense of self (Marie Claire)

Brilliantly funny (Vogue)

A comic tour de force (Daily Telegraph)

That rare thing: the lightweight comic novel that is well written, neatly constructed and actually funny (Guardian)

Clara is a thoroughly engaging, modern heroine who never descends into head-clutching cuteness. If India Knight doesn't produce a sequel, sharpish, she needs her head examined (The Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0241951798
• ISBN 13: 9780241951798
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256