BOOK CLUB REVIEW: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I don’t normally do this, but with a smash hit thriller so famously full of twists and turns, I’m going to include SPOILERS. How exciting! I’ll give you good warning when they’re about to kick in...

Nick and Amy Dunne are preparing to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, but things aren’t good with their marriage. The couple, in their late 30s, have moved to his home town in Missouri after they both lost magazine jobs in New York, victims of the recession which looms as a motif in this unsettled world.

Before any anniversary celebrations can begin, Amy disappears in mysterious circumstances. There are signs of a struggle at the Dunnes’ home, but things don’t add up.

Gripping to the end, what happened to Amy is revealed to us in first person narrative by both Nick and Amy alternately.

Healthy Chocolate: Three worthy ways to use your Easter eggs....

Truly scrumptious: chocolate flapjack

Strictly speaking, I don’t suppose a nutritionist would agree that the three chocolate recipes I’m about to share are actually health foods. However, I’m going to build my argument like the very best hot-shot barrister I know - AKA my son in the toy bit of Asda - as to why I think they are at least a worthy way of using up your Easter chocolate....

Guest post by author Janey Fraser - plus chance to win a copy of her new book, Happy Families

I'm delighted to welcome Janey Fraser, author of The Playgroup and The Au Pair, as she stops by on the blog tour for her new novel, Happy Families. Here, she asks: Am I the only one who embarrasses my kids? 
Happy Families is out on Thursday. There are three copies up for grabs, simply post a comment for a chance to win.* 

I don’t mean to do it – well, not all the time – but I do seem to have an unhappy knack for putting my foot in it. Take the other day when one of my children did something which made me so cross that I gave her a sound telling off. In front of half a dozen of her (gob-smacked) friends.

So what happened? Instead of apologising to me for doing what she shouldn’t have, my offspring turned the tables and told me off instead. ‘What will my friends think ?’ she demanded. ‘You’re so embarrassing!’

Oh but I can do better. There was the time I drove one of them to school, still in my dressing gown because, despite getting up at 6am, I’d run out of time to get dressed. Unfortunately, one of the teachers at school came up for a word…... My son, squirming in the front seat, has never let me forget that one.

#SilentSunday

Happy Families blog tour is popping in soon....

Author Janey Fraser will be visiting the blog on Monday with a very funny post: Am I the only one who embarrasses my kids? I'm guessing no. There'll also be a parenting questionnaire and three copies of the book up for grabs so remember to come along and have a read.... 

Big brother is watching you

Latest column - the one where we get the new baby. Page 6

Off-roading - #SatCap

Yesterday we had an unexpected and lovely family day, walking from Sandsend to Whitby on the Yorkshire Coast.
Of course, the walk itself was - well, a walk on the beach compared to the test of resolve that is Operation Getting Out of the Door.
Anyway, I'm pleased to report that our off-roader buggy did pretty well on the trek - despite what it might look like!*

*No babies were harmed in the making of this photograph