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  • Published: 4 January 2011
  • ISBN: 9781409000792
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

I Don't Know How She Does It



The twentieth anniversary edition of a genre-defining novel and international bestseller, with a new introduction from the author

'A bible for the working mother' OPRAH WINFREY
'It may change your life' OBSERVER
'I can't think of a woman who wouldn't want this book' INDIA KNIGHT
The twentieth anniversary edition of Allison Pearson's first novel that became a global sensation, now with a new introduction from the author.

Meet Kate Reddy, hedge-fund manager, wife and mother of two. Always time-poor, Kate must monitor nine currencies in five time zones but also keep in step with the Teletubbies. Factor in a manipulative nanny, piggish colleagues, a long-suffering husband, her quietly aghast in-laws, two needy children and an email lover, and you have a woman juggling so many things that some day something's going to hit the ground. And that something might just be Kate.

In an uproariously funny and achingly sad novel, Allison Pearson brilliantly dramatises the dilemma of working motherhood at the start of the twenty-first century.

'The definitive social comedy of working motherhood' WASHINGTON POST

  • Published: 4 January 2011
  • ISBN: 9781409000792
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

About the author

Allison Pearson

Allison Pearson was born in South Wales. An award-winning journalist, she was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards for her first novel, I Don't Know How She Does It. Allison has written for many magazines and newspapers including the Independent on Sunday, Observer, the Sunday Times and the London Evening Standard. She is a contributing editor to Harper's Bazaar and, for four years, she was the popular Wednesday columnist of the Daily Mail. Allison is now a staff writer at the Daily Telegraph. She lives with her family in Cambridge.

Also by Allison Pearson

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Praise for I Don't Know How She Does It

The writing is sharp, funny and cleverly observant of the small details - funny, intelligent and insightful

Waterstone's Books Quarterly

Brutally witty

Metro

It might be a sad indictment of the way things are today, but that doesn't stop Pearson making it funny

Glamour

A funny, heartbreaking mirror of the daily lives of mothers

Telegraph Magazine

Pearson writes with instinctive comedy

Observer Review

Funny, fast and full of nail-on-the-head observations

Daily Telegraph

Sparkling black comedy

Play

Painfully funny

Heat

Pearson is a hilarious author who captures the guilt and the exhaustion of the working mother's life perfectly

Dublin Daily

Pearson writes with gratifying elegance and endearing self-mockery

New York Times

It's the incisive details and Pearson's vivid writing that propel the story

New York Times Books

Smart book...great fun

New York Times

Pearson is insightful, witty and full of fun

Daily Telegraph

Searing comedy

New Statesman

Wonderfully warm, witty and intelligent

Sunday independent

A Bible for the working woman

Oprah Winfrey

The kind of book you fall in love with - a grown-up novel that is hilarious, heartbreaking and brimming with the bitter-sweet tang of all our lives

Tony Parsons

Allison Pearson is one of the stars of her generation

Alexandra Shulman

Her social observation is unerringly accurate...so beautifully written that it brought tears to my eyes, as well as a wry smile

Daily Telegraph

Pearson...to write a novel...that has already sold a gazillion copies and is going to become a film. Hats off to you, madam!

Ok Magazine

She will...make you laugh

Culture, Sunday Times

Refreshingly engaging

Vogue

Pearson...has made it all fresh again

Time

Entertaining, compulsively readable, and brilliantly written

Daily Candy

Hilarious and...poignant

Publisher's Weekly

This terrific novel is alternately hilarious and sad

Upfront

Here at last is the definitive social comedy of working motherhood

Washington Post

A book that made me howl with laughter

The Times

I love Kate Reddy...her tale made me cry twice and laugh often

Independent on Sunday

It may change your life

The Observer

Pearson is a very witty and moving writer. Her prose is spare and skilful...waspish truisms and spot-on social observations

Daily Express

Intelligent, witty and of-the-moment, it mixes sassy, brittle perceptions with barefaced sentimentality

The Herald, Glasgow

Pearson...never hides her intelligence or apologises for her seriousness of purpose

The Times

Extremely funny

The Irish Times

Brilliantly captures and defines the mood of the moment...sparkling wit and razor sharp insights

XW Magazine

Sharply observed and frequently funny

Evening Standard

If you could buy stock in a book, I would stake all my savings on the success of I Don't Know How She Does It. Here at last is the definitive social comedy of working motherhood

Washington Post