Man at the Helm

Our book club choice for July is Man at the Helm, by Nina Stibbe.

Meet Lizzie Vogel, 9.

Lizzie is concerned about her newly divorcée mother - thirty-one years old, with three young children and a Labrador in a hostile village in the English countryside.

It isn't that having a husband is good, but in 1970s rural Leicestershire, not having one is bad.

The women in the village think Lizzie's mother is after their husbands and no one will let the children into the Brownies. And so Lizzie and her sister embark on a misguided campaign to find a new Man at the Helm.

‘A beguilingly comic blend of naivety and precociousness’ Sunday Times

Author Nina Stibbe grew up in Leicestershire before moving to London in the 1980s. She is the author of the massively acclaimed Love, Nina, and lives with her partner and children in Cornwall.

Man At the Helm is available online and from all good booksellers. Winners of our free books (and, of course, anyone else who's read it) should leave their questions/comments on the thread.