Book 1 - The Lizzie Vogel Series

Man at the Helm

The hilarious debut novel from one of Britain’s wittiest writers

Nina Stibbe

- 4.3 • 36 Ratings

- £2.99

- £2.99

The very start of Lizzie Vogel's story. From the much-loved author of Love, Nina, discover a wildly comic, brilliantly sharp-eyed novel about one family's fall from grace.

'All hail a book that's funny!' Barbara Trapido

*****

Meet Lizzie Vogel, 9.

Lizzie is concerned about her newly divorced mother; thirty-one years old and trapped in a hostile village in the English countryside with only three young children and a Labrador for company. It isn't that having a husband is good, but in 1970s rural Leicestershire, not having one is bad. The women in the village think Lizzie's mother is after their husbands - and no one will let the children into the Brownies!

Worried about their mother's drinking, her (bad) playwriting and social workers sending them off to the infamous Crescent Home for Children, Lizzie and her sister embark on a misguided campaign to find their mother a new husband.

LIZZIE'S STORY CONTINUES IN PARADISE LODGE AND REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL!

*****

'[A] joyous read, full of wit and charm . . . I am already longing for Nina Stibbe's next book' OBSERVER

'Just the right mixture of childhood innocence and incredulity for the necessary deadpan delivery of Stibbe's particular brand of comedy. Read it and be charmed' INDEPENDENT

'A beguilingly comic blend of naivety and precociousness' SUNDAY TIMES

NINA STIBBE'S NEW NOVEL ONE DAY I SHALL ASTONISH THE WORLD IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW

APPLE BOOKS REVIEW

After chronicling her experiences as a London nanny in the endlessly charming memoir Love, Nina, British writer Nina Stibbe turns her attention to a fictional family in her hilarious debut novel. After their parents’ rancorous divorce, nine-year-old Lizzie—along with her older sister and younger brother—are uprooted to a small-minded Leicestershire town. Convinced that the townspeople’s chilly reception stems from their mercurial mother’s unmarried status—not to mention her penchant for alcohol and channelling her personal tragedies into maudlin plays—the two sisters embark on a hilariously misguided attempt to find her a partner. Man at the Helm sparkles with warmth, buoyed by writing that’s playfully imaginative.

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