Chasing Men

In an age when the fastest growing group in society is the single middle-aged, the divorced, the separated and the never-married, Edwina Currie's new novel is spot-on. Their swelling ranks include some who are terrified of singledom and others liberated by it; ageing Lotharios, happy bachelors of both sexes and every orientation, and - increasingly - smart women determined to be more than pretty adjuncts to selfish men. But they're not chasing the same outcomes as poor, man-hungry Bridget Jones. Not for them the home mortgage, marriage and children: they've been there, done that, and got the scar tissue to prove it. Hetty Clarkson is an attractive but rather empty-headed woman who once worked in TV. She believed marriage was for life and her lifestyle was traditional. She comes home one day to find her philandering husband in bed with another woman. Her cosy, complacent world implodes: nothing remains. Driven beyond endurance, she divorces him, only to face the future in great trepidation. Her subsequent adventures are hilarious, poignant and bang up-to-date: Edwina Currie's Chasing Men.