Plotting for Beginners

"Charming, intelligent and side-splittingly funny. Anyone who is a wife or mother will find a 'yes' moment on every page."-Lynne Barrett-Lee

Women reach fifty and think they're on the verge of liberation and excitement, and their broken-down men just want to stay home and fart. Or in my case, go and live in a cabin in the Rockies and fart.

Sally Howe plans to spend her husband-free year trying her hand at becoming a wildly successful author. But she's beset by distractions-the first being a queue of local lotharios led by young Billy Bathgate, village postmaster with a tartan trouser habit and an obsession with drain rods.

Plotting for Beginners offers a wry evaluation of long-haul marriages, plus a lesson on how to hit menopause running and seize your freedom when the family has gone.

Sue Hepworth previously worked as a research psychologist, social researcher, full-time mother, and various combinations of these, and she has been a frequent contributor to The Times. She lives in the Peak District with her husband in an empty nest and is addicted to sweet peas and romantic comedies.

Jane Linfoot was brought up in North Yorkshire and on Teesside. She has trained and worked as an architect, spent seven years in rural France, had children, moved thousands of hay bales, and pruned a lot of vines. Linfoot now lives in a sheltered spot up a mountain road in the Peak District with her children and assorted animals. She enjoys slide shows and Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolets. She also plays around with houses and writes.