Friday Reads – The Mother of all Problems by Nancy Peach.

Welcome to another Friday Reads post. This week’s featured book is the hilariously uplifting novel, The Mother of all Problems by Nancy Peach. Nancy is going to tell us the inspiration behind this story, so grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Nancy.

‘I laughed and cried my way through this book in all its unputdownable glory. Nancy’s writing is utterly sublime.’ Julie Caplin

Blurb

When did having it all become doing it all?

Penny Baker is coping. Just about.

Three kids, one dog, one lovely but sometimes oblivious husband. Tick, tick tick.

She is even managing to hold her own among the competitive school mums – if you don’t look too closely. But when she finds herself also caring for her elderly mother, diagnosed with dementia, the household is thrown into disarray and Penny finds herself stretched to breaking point trying to meet everyone’s needs.

Can she make the new family situation work? And is there any chance of finding some space in it all for herself?

Fans of Milly Johnson, Gill Sims and Alexandra Potter will adore this funny, relatable and uplifting read.

Praise for The Mother of All Problems:

‘Genuinely laugh-out-loud, but also deeply moving… a warm, witty, page-turner of a book.’ Kathleen Whyman

‘I absolutely loved this book… funny, heartwarming and just brilliant. If you like Motherland, this is a book for you!’ Olivia Beirne

‘One of the best books I have read this year. Funny and heartbreaking by turns. One to devour, rejoice in and reflect upon. An absolute triumph.’ Jenni Keer

‘Hilarious, heartbreaking and so relatable – a brilliant yet poignant take on the struggles of real life.’ Nina Kaye

‘Frank, fun and touching… crafted beautifully to tell a story many ‘sandwiched’ readers will identify with…a very special read.’ Faye Brann

‘What a glorious book – warm, hilarious and utterly relatable. Nancy Peach’s writing is delicious.’ Donna Ashcroft

Buy links

Hera:

Amazon:

Welcome to my blog, Nancy. What was your inspiration for The Mother of All Problems

I’ve been writing for a long time and I’ve often used books as a form of unofficial therapy. But the moment when my writing really went up a gear was when my mum was diagnosed with young onset dementia.

It’s hard to describe the isolation you feel when a parent is landed with this sort of diagnosis. My mum was only sixty when her brain scan confirmed that she had Alzheimer’s Disease and I was thirty-five with three young children. My peer group had not yet entered the phase of ‘caring for an elderly parent’ – my friends’ parents were newly-retired, jetting off around the world on mini-breaks and cruises, playing golf and generally having the time of their lives. They were not yet staring down the barrel of cognitive decline, residential care and incontinence.

So, I felt alone. Despite my close family and the support of my sister (without whom surviving this process would have been unthinkable) I felt that nobody else really understood what it was like to face this slow bereavement.

I searched the internet but found nothing. I just wanted to hear about somebody like me and to understand how they were coping. I needed a clear, perspective on how it felt to watch your parent lose their grip on reality without losing yours.  And an acknowledgement that there are tiny moments of comedy to be found lurking in the mire of Alzheimer’s Disease.

And so, because I couldn’t find a blog like this – I decided to write one myself. I started small and wrote under a pseudonym. That way I had a layer of psychological protection from the trolls and the freedom to write the absolute truth in all its ludicrous, dark glory. The more I wrote the more I connected with people – every post drew comments along the lines of, ‘thank you for sharing – I feel like this too.’ I realised that far from being alone, I was in fact part of an enormous, global network of carers, and that in writing my blog I was actually giving some of these people a voice.

A few of my regular followers had suggested that I write a book and I was reaching a point with the blog where documenting the hard reality of Mum’s decline was becoming depressing. A retreat back into fiction seemed both inevitable and welcome. I was already in the process of approaching agents with what would go on to become my debut, Love Life (a rom-com set in a hospice) but there had always been an idea niggling away at me to base a novel on the slightly bonkers life I was already leading. I wanted to tell the story of a normal woman in the sandwich generation, stuck between caring roles for family members at both ends of the age spectrum. I wanted to draw out the highs and laugh at the lows. And thus, The Mother of All Problems was born. 

I’m so sorry to hear about your mum, Nancy. This must so heartbreakingly hard, how inspiring that you were able to write about it and share your story with others on your blog. Your book sounds a fantastic read. Wishing you lots of success with it. 😍

Meet Nancy

Nancy Peach is a writer of commercial women’s fiction, a mother of three, and an owner of various ridiculous-looking pets including a splodgy cat, a rescue dog with wonky legs, and another dog who unexpectedly grew to be the size of a small horse. She is also a practicing doctor working for the NHS and for a national cancer charity, and has been writing (in a terribly British, embarrassed, secretive sort of way) for as long as she can remember.

Nancy has been longlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2020, nominated for the Joan Hessayon Award 2021, and shortlisted for the Harper Collins / Gransnet competition 2019. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and is represented by Katie Fulford at Bell-Lomax-Moreton.

Love Life is Nancy’s first novel; a heartwarming, uplifting rom-com with a nod to Jane Austen, described as ‘Pride and Prejudice set in a hospice.’ Her second novel, The Mother of All Problems, is a comedy about the trials and tribulations of the Sandwich Generation and is out now, with a third book, Hot Mother (managing motherhood and menopause) publishing later this year.

Instagram @nancy.peach

Twitter @mumhasdementia 

FB @nancypeach

Website www.nancy-peach.com

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