The School Gate Survival Guide by Kerry Fisher

NOW RE-ISSUED AS THE NOT SO PERFECT MUM (this is the version that I read).

Maia is mum to two primary school aged children, living with her partner(and father to her children) Colin and trying to hold the family together from her income as a Cleaner. Her favourite, and most lucrative client, passes away and Maia is genuinely upset - not only about the loss of income but also the loss of a friend and mentor. Couple with this her worries over bringing the children up on the Walldon Estate and Colin's lack of interest in finding work and life is just one long worry. Summoned to the solicitor's office she finds that the dear departed Prof. has left her £24K a year - so long as it is used to pay for the children to go to private school. Over-riding Colin's resistance to the idea of sending Harley and Bronte somehow Maia scrimps and saves to afford school uniform and school supplies all in the name of giving her children the best possible start in their life. So starts the rollercoaster of Maia's life.

Engagingly told with a good few dollops of pathos as well as humour; this is a great read for a wet weekend curled up in front of a warm fire. Nothing ground breaking or illuminating about the tale, or the way it is told but enjoyable enough. The characters are more or less walking stereotypes:

Colin - Feckless, lazy, council estate male who spends all his money down the pub and the bookies. Lost his physique and now sprawls on the couch in his vest when not out spending his benefits.

Maia - Put upon modern women who is trying to do everything for everyone but failing.

Jennifer - Very middle-class and despises the peons from the estate and is not afraid of showing it.

Clover - Seriously rich, clearly from old money but seriously scatty and foul mouthed.

I think you get the point. It doesn't help that you more or less know exactly how things will turn out from the first 50 or so pages.

If you are a fan of chic-lit then this is a worthwhile purchase, if you are on the fence about the genre then this may not be for you as the story is pretty much a genre staple. The writing is adequate with sparks of genuinely good passages of dialogue that do drive the tale forward. Personally, although this is not literature in any shape or form it is an enjoyable story that is told acceptably well and it entertained me. So, despite all my criticisms above I still gave it a middling 3 stars because it did what all books should do - entertained with a tale.

**Review originally published November 17th, 2017**