NEW RELEASE
The School Gate Survival Guide - Kerry Fisher (2014)
Maia Etxeleku works hard as a cleaner so she can take care of her two children while her partner Colin spends his time lazing around at home. Out of the blue, one of Maia's favourite clients passes away and the elderly lady, who was fond of Maia, leaves her an unexpected inheritance. The money can't be spend on just anything; it's so Maia's two children can attend an exclusive private school and get the best education possible. Suddenly, Maia finds herself standing at the school gates together with all the ladies she works for, and has to find her own way in this middle-class world while dealing with everything else that's going on in her life. I've read several novels about school gate politics over the years, but I have to say this is definitely my favourite so far. The main protagonist, Maia, is easily likeable and I was rooting for her until the very last page. Maia is willing to do anything to make her children's lives better, but her boyfriend Colin and their money situation doesn't make it easy for her. When she inherits money for the kids to go to private school, she knows she has to take this opportunity but it's the start of a whole new set of problems. It was great seeing Maia deal with the other mothers and everything that is thrown her way. The plotline is really engaging and consists of a good mix of both light-hearted aspects and more serious topics such as class inequality. Kerry Fisher has a really comfortable and well-paced writing style which only made the reading experience even more enjoyable. It's an engaging, entertaining, well-written and funny read; I loved it! (JoH)
Previously published as The Class Ceiling, The School Gate Survival Guide is Kerry Fisher's debut novel. The summary says: "Feisty Maia Etxeleku is a cleaner for ladies who lunch. She spends her life wiping up spilt Sauvignon and hoovering around handbags before rushing back home to skivvy after her children's feckless father on an estate where survival depends on your ability to look the other way. But an unusual inheritance catapults her into a different world where no child can survive without organic apricots and Kumon maths classes - and no woman can contemplate a week without Pilates and pedicures. As she blunders through a middle-class minefield, dashing from coffee mornings to her mops and buckets, she is drawn to the one man who can help her family fit in. But is his interest in her purely professional or will her modern My Fair Lady experiment end in disaster?" The School Gate Survival Guide is out in July 2014.