Guest author posts

I'm really looking forward to having guest posts from some of my fellow authors on this page. Check back soon for the first guest!

My books

The Au Pair by Janey Fraser

Bonjour! Je m’appelle Antoinette Malfille and I am enormously excitable about becoming au pair! I have 19 years of age and have forever desired to visit Angleterre. My hobbies are clubbing and drinking. I tolerate children. I have (almost) forsaken smoking. I am available to work for you until Christmas as I do not pass my Baccalaureate. I await to meet you! 

So starts the opening to THE AU PAIR, a romp through the world of foreign bodies and unsuspecting families. Jilly, a harassed mother of three, decides to set up an au pair agency around her kitchen table to help with family finances.

Over the Channel, Marie-France signs up for Jilly’s agency in order to search for her English father who’d had a fling with her mother when she’d been an au pair, some twenty years earlier.

Then there’s eight year old Lottie who is determined to drive away one au pair after another – until she meets her match.

With a cast of characters drawn straight from real life, The Au Pair takes a hilarious look at what happens when an au pair takes over your family.

From the author of The Playgroup a hilarious book about families, au pairs, and the chaos that ensues when the two come together.

Praise for Janey Fraser:
‘I read it without stopping all the way home. Sincerely meant and rings true, and homey. Unputdownable.’ Fay Weldon
‘Terrific story and enormous fun. Also the characters were all great. I really, really enjoyed it.’ Judy Astley
‘A must read for anyone who has small children. Hugely enjoyable.’Katie Fforde

 

The Playgroup by Janey Fraser 

Are your kids at playgroup or pre-school as they’re called now?

If so, you’ll love my new book called THE PLAYGROUP(Random House).

Take three adults and mix them with a group of under-fives at Puddleducks Playgroup.

What do you get?

A steaming story about love, envy, laughter and tears. Gemma, the young acting playgroup leader has a secret which could wreck someone else’s life.

Nancy, a panicky first-time mum needs to save her child – and her marriage. Joe, the handsome, moody new head of Reception has to learn some lessons himself before he can pass them onto his class.

Then little Lily, the daughter of a celebrity singer, goes missing and Danny, her small friend is diagnosed with the kind of illness that every parent dreads.

Will they all pull through? All is revealed when Puddleducks Playgroup puts on its annual nativity Christmas play – with an unexpected ending.

There’s lots of fun, humour and romance but, as one reviewer said, ‘it will also make you hold your breath until the last page’.

About me

Janey Fraser is the pen name for journalist Jane Bidder who also writes as Sophie King.

You might have read some of my previous novels such as THE SCHOOL RUN and THE WEDDING PARTY which was short listed for Love Story of the Year 2010.

For many years, I was a journalist on women’s magazines and until recently,edited the family page of Woman. Now I write ‘MUM LIT’ novels about the ups and downs of family life.

I have plenty of experience with my own three – remind me to tell you, one day, about the time that my youngest gave his friend a pudding-basin haircut while my back was turned for three minutes or when my eldest bashed me on the head with an empty lemonade bottle while driving because of an over-heated car game.

If you’d like to find out about competitions or events, please sign up to my regular email newsletter .