Hey yeah right get a life

Helen Simpson's third collection is a bold, honest exploration of the trials and the rewards of motherhood. ‘Her stories are - for those who, like me, recognise the truth in every word - like a reprieve...

Sharp, poetic and marvellously witty’ Kate Kellaway, ObserverHere are tales of a highflyer stuck at an interminable Burns Night celebration, increasingly aware of the babysitter waiting for her at home; an exhausted mother longing for adult conversation but whose son unwittingly precludes it; and a teenage girl whose fraught encounter with a harried mum of one brings newfound appreciation for her own capable mother of four.

Most strikingly of all we meet Dorrie, whose efforts to calm her tinderbox of a family leave her struggling to contain her own emotions.

Hey Yeah Right Get a Life is a singular achievement: relatable, perceptive and utterly poignant. ‘It's a brilliant, painful, funny and courageous book’ Esther Freud, Guardian