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More About the Author
Product Description
Red Magazine
'..wise, warm and witty...Will keep you reading until the very last page.'
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Product Description
If you thought mothers were bad, wait til you meet the evil grandma - the brilliantly funny novel from the bestselling author of The Bad Mother's Handbook
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
kate long is suberb, reading swallowing grandma and the bad mothers handbook is like a breath of fresh air. her heroines are real, real people with lives which don't revolve around the spa, the 'office' etc.they resonate with anyone who has looked after an elderly relative or small child and covers all the pitfalls without the usual 'chick lit' stereotypes (glamour puss out of depth) which frankly i feel has been done to death now its almost painful. she writes in a way that everyone can relate too and is witty without being patronizing. living 'up north' and coming from a working class background i can really identify with Kat in the book, swimming or trying to swim against the old rules of her grandmothers generation. i found swallowing grandma one of the best books i've read in a long time and i can't wait for the next one from this talented lady.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Swallowing Grandma covers similar territory to Kate Long's first novel, The Bad Mother's Handbook, in its witty, gritty northern humour, and themes of teenage pregnancy, difficult family relationships and absence of fathers. Kate does teenage loathing particularly brilliantly. The book is also a fascinating mystery too, which keeps you guessing until the end. An ending which is all the more powerful and satisfying for the author not feeling obliged to tie everything up into a glossy red bow and answer all her characters' problems, because let's face it, with the issues such as eating disorders, ageing parents, and abandoned children, there are no easy solutions. Imperfect people are allowed to stay imperfect, just like real life. The book is believable, honest and unflinching - the sort of book I thought UK publishers had stopped allowing the book buying public to read!!! So thanks Kate (and Picador) for a great read and for not force-feeding us yet more sugar-coated, redemptive endings.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book was very moving and from the very first I was so immersed in the drama between the two main characters that I found myself taking sides. The blurb at the back of the book was not wrong when it described Poll as pure poison. Kate Long was so precise and accurate about this. She made you put your sympathy for Poll's disability aside without guilt because she depicted a character who seemed full of malice and bitterness, from top to toe.
The theme is the complexity of family - constant conflict, kept in check by familial love. This made it a bit too similar to Long's first novel, The Bad Mother's Hand Guide. However, it may be that this is where Long feels she is at her best so she is sticking with it. Don't blame her. Why be a jack of all trades when you can be master of one.
Well done Kate Long. An inspiration and spur in the right direction for would-be writers.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
I just loved it!
I just loved this book, it was so sympathetically written it was so easy to get under the skin of the characters. The whole thing was believable and easy to read. Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. R. Saunders
A good 'un!
Really enjoyed this. It was darkly funny but also very poignant with very down to earth, believable characters. I loved the Bad Mothers Handbook and this was even better.
Published 7 months ago by poppysma
A northern tale?
I didn't read this book until in my late thirties and my only regret was that it wasn't around when I was a teenager. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Mrs. S. J. Ashwell
Don't understand all the hype
The themes of this book: abandonment, eating disorders, judgemental adults, disability - all hit home rather hard so I was looking for a breath of fresh air and an honest... Read more
Published on 20 May 2010 by Ms. J. Mcconnell
Un put down able
Kate Long has written a truly brilliant book. Katherine or Kat, as decided she wants to be known, is warm, funny, fat and bullied, but somehow she manages to pull through and just... Read more
Published on 10 April 2009 by Mrs. Joanna Louise May
Sensitive handling of lots of difficult issues
This book was full of difficult issues - bulimia, incest, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, old age and bullying to mention just a few - and it felt like all of these were handled in... Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2008 by Janie U
good read, really laughable at times...
overall i think its a good read but lacked in a wow, but still i would recommend this book to read because i enjoyed it! Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2008 by Ms. Mariam Faisal
SUPERB READ
This book in my opinion was better than Bad Mother's handbook i found myself really laughing out loud, the characters were real and not airy fairy. Read more
Published on 10 April 2008 by Bookworms
One of those books you finish and think that HAS to be my favourite!
I absolutely LOVED this book, more than The Bad Mother's Handbook which is saying something. I felt the characters were even more vivid than last time, and I thought the character... Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2007 by gabby
love this author
KL has life down to a tee, this book is sad, amusing and thought provoking in one, i never thought she could beat her first book but she has. Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2006 by Mrs. T. Jones
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