The Mid-Life Crisis - Tapa dura

'With consumate skill the authors have once again skewered our national smugness' -- Nicky Haslam 'Opening a volume by Victoria Mather and Sue Macartney-Snape always fills me with delicious apprehension. I know that, in no time, I will be chuckling away at the absurdities of someone who is awfully like me' -- Julian Fellowes 'A dazzling combination' -- Jilly Cooper 'They have a mind-reader's gift for rooting around inside our heads, and serving up every last nuance and pretention as spot-on social comedy' -- Nicholas Coleridge

Serendipity is horribly aware that she's entering the environs of the elasticated waistband. And these days it seems to be the arrival of her rose and bulb catalogues that inspires a thrill of near-erotic pleasure. As for her husband Stanton, at the first signs of receding hair he compensated by buying a new Harley-Davidson complete with helmet. But, much like Stanton's hairline, their blithe mantra that there's no such thing as middle age might just be beginning to wear a little thin. Victoria Mather and Sue Macartney-Snape are back with another achingly funny cocktail of Social Stereotypes. There is the ever-enthusiastic Antonia who works for Dimwit PR, speaks in exclamation marks and is just too, too blonde; Rachel, the new Tory, who puts other mums to shame with her 'I-got-a-first-and-I-also-have-a-cleavage' self-assurance; and the competitive grannies who fight tooth-and-nail for sole influence over their darling little grandson, Joshua. From the Long Lunchers to the Intimidating Shop Assistant, every foible is delicately detailed and every character strikes a chord. You'll no doubt have already run across a couple of them today.