Beautifully written British humour novel “The Trouble with Ally” by Sheila Norton.
Ally Bridgman is on the verge of turning fifty, her husband has left for somebody much younger, she has two teenage daughters, a sick cat, sick mother who miraculously finds a lover and goes to Majorca. She is in fear of losing her job and gets three week leave for stress.
That extends to another three weeks in which she finds herself battling one crisis after another. Her husband’s girlfriend falls sick which blame pins on Ally. Meanwhile her daughters Lucy & Victoria are in the throes of love in and out. Victoria goes from one boyfriend to another, while Lucy goes off with her boy friend ostensibly to get married and buy a house and all that.
Ally’s boss’s father Ian falls for her and that infuriates her to no end and her cat disappears for the second time. Amidst all this chaos Ally starts jogging on her doctor’s advice and finds her stress disappearing, her appetite back and her weight going down. But she still has to take care of her boss’s adventures, her husband sort of pining for her and her daughters doing things which daughters should not be a doing.
All in all, a madcap adventure novel very beautifully narrated by Sheila Norton. Goodreads 5/5
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