Taking the devil's advice

"Spending the summer with his ex-wife, his children, his ex-gardener (and ex-wife's new husband) was never going to be a good idea. Perhaps Oliver should have expected the autobiography he was writing would be constantly sabotaged? Perhaps he should have guessed that he'd have scorn and derision poured upon him? But then Oliver was a philosopher, always happier with abstraction than reality, and the realities of his life have never been simple - and they're just about to come crashing down around him in the most unexpected and hilarious of ways. arket: eaders of contemporary women's fiction, e.g. Margaret Forster, Joanna Trollope, Alice Thomas Ellis and Angela Lambert. Reviews: Anne Fine's black comedy bounces along its sprightly one-liners without flagging' - Observer It is very perky, shot through with wit, and full of effervescence and good humour' - Financial Times It is said to take two to make a quarrel but the casus belli for Constance after sixteen years of marriage is her philosopher husband Oliver's serene unawareness of ever having given grounds for one...clever and entertaining...a direly witty achievement' - Guardian Alive with brazen charm' - Mail on Sunda