Mothertime By: Gillian White

It’s Christmas Eve at 14 Camberley Road, North London. The Townsend children have hung up the last strand of tinsel and now, in the firelight, all is softly aglow, with the magic and mystery of Christmas… Anfd then – oh no! – their mother staggers home. Caroline Townsend, ex-beauty, failed actress, divorcee, and almost alcoholic, is fighting drunk (as usual) and has just been jilted by her lover, Bart. Will Christmas be doomed again this year? One thing’s for sure: it’s time for desperate measures. Wildly funny, completely original, and full of insights about marriage, adolescence and the lethal defences we all use to hide our needy selves, Mothertime is worth a decade of psychotherapy and is far more entertaining.