Showing results by author "Jenny Eclair" in All Categories

Recorded in front of a live audience at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, this fantastic anthology features a host of diverse short stories, composed and performed by a veritable Who's Who of stand-up comedians. By turns hilarious and irreverent, poignant and bittersweet, together they make up a superb selection box of tasty treats.

A seriously entertaining collection of feelgood stories guaranteed to put the smile back on your face written especially by 10 best-selling novelists. From a hilarious race against time to a moment of unexpected eavesdropping, from righting wrongs in rural India to finding joy in unlikely places, these stories are all rich in wit and humour, guaranteed to lift your spirits and warm your heart.

Daughter of Major Derek Hargreaves (spy?) and June Hargreaves (spy's wife?) sister of Sara (born to be Head Girl) and Ben (the usurper), Jenny's comedy career took off via drama school, cider, sausage rolls, sleeping with men who looked like they lived under a carpet, punk poetry, anorexia, bedsit misery, waitressing and not really having a clue about anything. This was a world before microphones, mobile phones, before everyone gave up smoking or started taking coke. Jenny Eclair was on the comedy circuit before there really was a comedy circuit.

A sparkling collection of comic monologues written by Jenny Éclair about women facing pivotal moments in their lives. These tales introduce women seeking revenge, security and adventure: a grandmother visits an upmarket supermarket to buy her grandchildren a meal they won't forget; a lonely woman takes a peek into other people's properties and lives when their houses are put up for sale; and a cleaner who discovers some secrets behind the Farrow and Ball doors of the middle class homes she visits.

This is a satellite-dish-free zone of tall houses, standing shoulder to shoulder with big front doors, five floors apiece. You could almost be in Kensington. This is where the actors, writers and media types live, where small children wearing smart uniforms and shoes in the shape of lightbulbs get ferried every day to schools that are not local. Some people are luckier than others; fortune smiles on some and gobs on the rest. Jo Metcalf smokes and spies on the smug Cunninghams down the street as they play their bile-inducing game of happy families.

Jenny Eclair is one of Britain’s most-loved stand-up comedians, and the first woman to win the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. She has written several acclaimed books, including the Sunday Times bestseller Older and Wider: A Survivor's Guide to the Menopause, and appeared on numerous TV and radio shows including Grumpy Old Women and Just a Minute. Collected here are some of her finest and funniest radio comedies, centred around women who are at a turning point in their lives.

Jenny Eclair, with her trademark humour, will share her experience of what can be a difficult time for many women, from the emotional side of life - missing the woman you were, the empty nest, mood swings - to the health aspects of the menopause, starring the hot flush and also periods (lack of), weight problems, insomnia and other issues. Upbeat and honest, Jenny shares her new-found hobbies, the joy of pets and how to make the best of the different but still-fabulous you.

Jean Collins had two daughters. But she only loved one of them. She knew it was wrong, but she just couldn't help herself. Jess was a little sweetheart, everyone said so. Anne was awkward and serious and not much fun, to be frank. But now the years have passed. Jess is missing - run off long ago, no one knows where or why. So when Jean is left in a coma after a road accident, it's Anne who travels back up north to sit at her mother's bedside. And she wonders - why did Jean dash out into the road without looking? What distracted her?

It only took one night to tear a family apart. Artist and illustrator Edwina Spinner used to have a busy family life. Now she lives alone in a house that has grown too big for her. She has decided to sell it. As Edwina takes the estate agent from room to room, she finds herself transported back to her life as a young mother. Back to her twins, Rowena and Charlie, and a stepson she cannot bring herself to mention by name.

Joe Dobson left his wife and kids when his young girlfriend, Nina, discovered she was pregnant. Now he feels like a cliche and Nina feels like a drudge, swapping her wild nights out with friends for mild nights in wiping baby sick off the carpet. So when Joe announces that he's booked a week's luxury holiday in Italy, Nina is thrilled - until she realises Joe's kids, Saul and Tabitha, are coming along for the ride.

In deepest Cornwall, the mansion Kittiwake has seen many pass through its doors since it was bought by American heiress Peggy Carmichael 70 years ago. Over the decades, the keys have been handed down through the family, and now it belongs to Bel's adoptive brother, Lance. It's where he'll be celebrating his 50th birthday, and Bel is invited.

Summer 1975: Helena is bored out of her mind - there's absolutely nothing to do and her supposed 'best friends' Gwen and Elaine are holidaying in the South of France without her. Summer 2021: New to the north, Hermione's mum has moved her away from London and all her friends to start a new life with new boyfriend Paul, who resembles a slab of meat from the butchers. By some miracle, the girls meet.

Jenny Eclair and Julie Balloo return with a second series about being an 'older' mother. Cass Mason is finding motherhood age 47 tough. She barely has time to blog with a new baby who won't sleep; she fears she may be turning into a zombie. Not only does Cass have to deal with Florence, the rest of the family aren't much help. Will Ken ever get a job, will her designer-clad sister even offer to hold a drooling baby and are her two grown children really contemplating moving back home?

In this addictive short story collection, 24 very different women reach a pivotal moment in their lives. A widow is liberated by a new job but keeps it secret from her family. A date in suburbia has dramatic results. A seamstress takes revenge on an unsuspecting customer while in France, a mother is promised 'fantastic news' - and lets her imagination run away with her.