Description

Shortlisted for the 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

‘Utterly, utterly perfect and brilliant – I think it is, simply, a new classic, and the book every woman will be able to trust to make her happy when she picks it up’ – Caitlin Moran

‘Utterly wonderful … full of love. Enormously uplifting, funny and witty and wry’ – Marian Keyes

‘Such a perfectly precise rendering of life with small children, I felt like I was reading my own diary … had I been cleverer, wittier and more intent on finding the joy and hope and humour amid all the mess of life’ – Meg Mason

‘A glorious, outrageously funny retelling of E.M. Delafield’s Diary of a Provincial Lady. At once, a celebration of the joy of family life and a cry of anguish at the utter hell of it. Laugh out loud, compulsive reading’ – Nina Stibbe

Meet Liz: all she wants is some peace and quiet so she can read a book with her cat Henry, love of her life, by her side. But trampling all over this dream is a group of wild things also known as Liz’s family. Namely:

Richard – a man, a husband, no serious rival to Henry.
Thomas – their sensitive seven year old son, for whom life is a bed of pain already.
Evie – five year old acrobat, gangster, anarchist, daughter.

And as if her family’s demands (Where are the door keys? Are we made of plastic? Do ‘ghost poos’ really count?) weren’t enough, Liz must also contend with the madness of parents, friends, bosses, and at least one hovering nemesis. Are We Having Fun Yet? is a year with one woman as she faces all the storms of modern life (babysitters, death, threadworms) on her epic quest for that holy grail: a moment to herself.

Publisher Review

Utterly wonderful ... full of love. Enormously uplifting, funny and witty and wry -- Marian Keyes I read everything by Lucy Mangan, she is one of the funniest writers in Britain. -- Jenny Colgan Utterly, utterly perfect and brilliant - I think it is, simply, a new classic, and the book every woman will be able to trust to make her happy when she picks it up. Lucy Mangan is a fucking genius. SO MUCH WISDOM IN IT. SO MUCH ANGER. SO MUCH LOVE. SO MUCH LOL. It's just exquisite -- Caitlin Moran I was crying with laughter reading so much of it ... full of pure simmering rage -- Emma Barnett * BBC Woman's Hour * Such a perfectly precise rendering of life with small children, I felt like I was reading my own diary from my first years of motherhood - had I been cleverer, wittier and more intent on finding the joy and hope and humour amid all the mess of life. So deeply relatable, every parent presently in the trenches of family life should read it, to feel less alone (and all of their child-free friends, to explain why their formerly fun and capable BF is now always exhausted, late and grubby) * Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss * Lucy Mangan nails the absurd pitfalls of modern life/marriage/small children so completely and honestly, but with a lightness of touch that means the overall effect is calming and nourishing and feels like having a really good chat with a kind and loving friend. And so funny! I was shaking the bed with my laughter. -- Cathy Rentzenbrink Warm, witty and invigorated by righteous anger -- Amber Pearson * Mail on Sunday * A comic update on EM Delafield's Diary Of A Provincial Lady that will hit home with anyone who hates the verb "to multitask" -- 'Books to make people laugh' * Stylist * Family life under the microscope - scalpel sharp and gloriously real. Pure Mangan: witty and wickedly funny -- Jenny Eclair Compelling, connecting humour from start to finish ... motherhood made funny -- Helen Lederer A glorious, outrageously funny retelling of E.M. Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady. At once a celebration of the joy of family life and a cry of anguish at the utter hell of it. Laugh out loud, compulsive reading. -- Nina Stibbe This romp through the chaos of family life will have you wincing and rejoicing in equal measure -- Susie Mesure * iPaper *