Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up: The Funniest WTF AM I DOING? Novel of the Year (Confessions, 1)

Product Information

Single - nearly 29 and single, and I'm still being asked "when are you going to find a man and settle down? Nell’ faces the dilemma that I, and so many other women arriving childless at midlife face. How the hell do we do this when everything around us has prepared us for something different? May 9, 2023 ] ‘Calm After the Storm’ and other treasures to support your childless heart on Mother’s Day Alexandra Potter is a guest for January 2021’s Nomo Book Club, hosted within the Gateway Women Online Community by Lisa Kissane, the Host of the Nomo Book Club. Come and join Lisa, Alexandra, and plenty of other forty-somethings (or fifty-somethings now in my case!) on Saturday 23rd January 2021 at 10am UK time as together we show that it’s not only in rom-com that we get to write our own endings.

Unwittingly, Nell seems to stumble from one incident to another. Grounded in familiar everyday family and work situations, these situations remain plausible despite being a work of fiction. Nell is also utterly relatable as the continual survivor and you can't help but cheer her on. I've said it before that I'm not overly fond of books that talk about the pandemic, as I want escapism, I don't want to read about something I lived through. But Alexandra has found a balance here. She's mentioned it - as anyone would if their book is set during that time - but it's not a main plot point. It helps give context to a few things, but the story would equally be as great without it. Alexandra Potter is a British author, whose first novel ‘What’s New, Pussycat?’ was published in 2000, a week before her 30th birthday and immediately made the top ten. She has since written twelve novels of romantic comedy including ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’, ‘Me and Mr Darcy’ (which won Best New Fiction Award at the Jane Austen Regency World Awards) and ‘Love From Paris’ which was shortlisted for the RNA Comedy Award.After thoroughly enjoying Confessions of a 40-Year-Old F***Up, I was thrilled to hear there was a sequel. No old lady hair’ should have been included in our wedding vows as my husband has made me promise this on numerous occasions. 🤣 ——‘I might be in my eighties but I’m not having a cauliflower head….That’s what my friend Una called old lady hair. At my age you have to on guard against a short curly perm.’

Now, we're 2.5 years on from that, I am now 30, and I am 1) still single, 2) still childless, and 3) have no job but still refer to myself as a writer, albeit a failed one when it comes to actually finishing anything. My bookclub friends will appreciate this one. ——‘When did I stop buying expensive lingerie and start buying expensive hoovers? Worst still when did I start getting excited about my new hoover?’I have read all of Alexandra Potter's wonderful novels and not one of them has disappointed. Her writing style is casual, flirty, accessible... her books are an absolute joy to read, delving into the characters' thoughts and feelings in a way that not only has the reader relating to them, but fully empathising with them. From that late urge to want motherhood to dealing with the beginnings of Perimenopause, friendships becoming fragile as everyone is dealing with their own issues and realising you might not actually have it all together, despite being closer to 50 than before. She cites the miscarriage scene in Fleabag as a perfect example of this. “That has happened to friends, who have had one in the toilet at work, for example, and then had to rush into a meeting.” She pauses. “I think it’s very difficult for us to be vulnerable, but when we allow ourselves to be, like Chrissy Teigen did with her miscarriage and then Meghan Markle with her New York Times essay, that’s when we get that real connection – because we’re being honest and real.” In this hilarious, un-put-downable follow-up to the bestselling Confessions of a Forty-Something F ## k Up , now the basis for the major TV series, Not Dead Yet , there are laugh-out-loud lessons to be learned, truths to be told, adventures to go on and joys to discover.

Nell is our forty-something protagonist, she represents so many women, in our different ways. She is intimidated by the yummy mummy brigade, she isn’t proficient at yoga, hates air-kissing and high heels. These character traits tell me she is definitely one of my tribe. Then there’s the stigma of not being a mother, which is why Potter was adamant her heroine should remain childless. “Just look at how we talk about Jennifer Aniston, when from the look of things she has a fantastic life. But unfortunately women are measured by that.” Potter says she doesn’t personally mind the constant, casual questions about motherhood, “and I realise why they come up, socially, but I know that for a lot of friends who couldn’t have children those questions can be a trigger”. I highly recommend this book, it is for every one of us, for the ‘outcasts’ like me (childfree by choice, gasp!) who try to walk life through a different path than one that is deemed acceptable, or for someone like you who may have achieved the so-called ‘milestones’ in life, is considered a ‘success’ by society but like Nell’s friends in the book may feel like a f-up nonetheless. All of these pressures and stigmas – aren’t many of them propagated not by men but women, though? “Women do have a competitive streak, but I think that’s in life generally, and on the contrary I have always found them to be very supportive of one another.” A funny and heartfelt novel for any woman who wonders how the hell she got here and why life isn't quite how she imagined it was going to be.

Featured Reviews

I really loved this catch up with the characters. I leave them at the end of this book wishing them well, and wondering if we will get another peek into their lives again in a few years, I hope so. No Job - not my fault. Had a job. Enjoyed it. Pandemic came along. Lost job. So instead I say I'm a writer, when really I'm a failed author pleading for someone to read my book. But then something happened that no one expected, turning the world upside down in a way no one could have ever imagined. Eighteen months on, life is finally returning to normal! But what is normal anymore? The first Confessions book was one of my favourites of 2021. It was so original and I absolutely loved it! So I squealed with excitement at being given a copy of the sequel.

Funny but layered, light-hearted but surprisingly deep, this is a perfect and inspiring new year read' - Red In the hilarious and heartfelt follow-up to Confessions of a Forty-Something F##k Up Nell discovers that there's no such thing as having it all figured out. The story of Nell Stevens’ struggle through her imperfect, messy life doesn’t just make brilliant fiction, it’s turning into a cultural revolution!' Matt Cain Watch now] ‘Challenging the Lazy Stereotypes of Childless Women in Fiction and Films’. A free World Childless Week webinar: Thursday 14 September 2023, 7pm BST I loved the way Alexandra Potter incorporated the pandemic into the start of the novel. It was the perfect way to have Nell reevaluate herself after finding peace with her life in the first novel. It reminded me of how much our lives got completely tipped upside down thanks to COVID-19.

Nell’s openhearted candor is proof that the more we love, and the more we give, the more love we have to give. Rather than her insecurities making her a viciously jealous Mean Girl, the bumbling heroine’s compassion and understanding make her an unwitting advocate for the downtrodden. More Confessions is set 18 months after the end of the first book and follows Nell's journey as she and the rest of the UK navigate the return to normal after Covid. Having spent a large amount of her time alone in her flat, she's looking forward to being able to get out and about again with her boyfriend, Edward, and her friends. Finally they can gather at each other's houses with no restrictions, they can go to the pub and enjoy a drink and they can even have weddings again!