The light-hearted, hilarious and gorgeous novel centring on the trials of the bashful but beautiful Harriet. Find out why Jilly Cooper is one of Britain most beloved authors...

'No one else can make me laugh and cry quite like Jilly Cooper.' - GILL SIMS
'The funniest and sharpest writer there is.' - JENNY COLGAN
'The Jane Austen of our time' - HARPERS

Further praise for Jilly Cooper:
'Joyful and mischievous' Jojo Moyes
'Fun, sexy and unputdownable' Marian Keyes
'Flawlessly entertaining' Helen Fielding

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Shy, dreamy, and incurably romantic, Harriet Poole was shattered when her brief affair with Simon Villiers, the dashing Oxford undergraduate, ended abruptly, leaving her penniless, alone and pregnant.

Still hopelessly in love with Simon, she took baby William and buried herself in deepest Yorkshire as nanny to the children of Cory Erskine, a somewhat eccentric scriptwriter.

Local tongues were just beginning to wag when a whole host of visitors began to arrive to disrupt Harriet's peaceful routine: first Cory's estranged wife Noel, hellbent on winning Cory back, then Cory's glamorous brother Kit, whose old affair with Noel didn't stop him making passes at Harriet.

Finally, of all people, Simon...

Jilly Cooper is a journalist, author and media superstar. The author of many number one bestselling books, she lives in Gloucestershire.

She has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Gloucestershire and Anglia Ruskin, and won the inaugural Comedy Women in Print lifetime achievement award in 2019. She was also appointed DBE in 2024 for services to literature and charity.