Mating, Marriage, Motherhood, Mayhem, Stacey Duguid

'Engaging, honest and funny...Stacey could write about Farrow & Ball paint drying

• •not to mention the breakdown of a marriage and a lifetime's dreams
• •and make it funny. Whatever happens next in her life, I want to read it.' The Sunday Times Hello, my name's Stacey Duguid and I'm a reformed fashion editor. Oh, wait. Wrong meeting. I once worked for British ELLE magazine and wore expensive clothes, whereas I'm now a single mother, divorcee and love addict (wearing expensive clothes I never should've bought). I spent my entire twenties, and, err, alright, thirties, in nightclubs. Dabbling occasionally with the odd recreational drug (or five), I shopped hard, loved hard and tried very hard to find a man who could save me. From the stuff we pick-up as little girls to an ingrained internalisation of gender roles we're left to unpack for a lifetime, I'd spent a lifetime pursuing a dream marriage which, in the end, left me shattered. Who suggested 'happily ever after' was even given thing? This collection of essays tells the story of a life that, until my marital breakdown, looked absolutely f-ing fabulous. I'll talk about everything that is taboo in today's society, some of which you may have gone through, too: miscarriage, abortion, debt, affairs, divorce, single parenting, post-natal depression, sex and dating in mid-life. The cracks in my life were glossed over with a big smile, a large wine and an outfit I definitely couldn't afford. Had someone told me not to worry about meeting a man, and to stop blowing money on credit cards just because the 'spirits' (as in dead people, not vodka) told me I needed 'a new wider-shoulder jacket', despite it being a week before payday and not having enough money in...