I read Celia Imrie's 'Not Quite Nice' today, it saved my sanity. I was at the athletics master's while DBH was competing, and it was the most wonderful escape from all those people dressed in neon lycra doing strange things to their bodies all around me.
I really liked it. It wasn't a fairy tale, it wasn't a chicklit 'Happy Ever After, it was a lot more realistic, going by stories I have heard from friends who have gone to live in the South of France, in particular. And many a gransnetter will recognise the descriptions of their DCs. I particularly loved the ending. I have a friend to whom precisely the same has happened, except it is her son and not a daughter.
One gransnetter said on another thread that she hated the book. But as I can say that several of the events described in the book were very similar to ones that happened to me/friends in the past, and that rather than being rather mean, she has actually made it all much nicer than the reality for some, I can only conclude that some people only read the syrupiest of syrupy chicklit.