Welcome to my  feature, Pastime Pleasures, posted every other Friday. Today is the turn of Desperate Diary of a Country Housewife by Daisy Waugh

Here I will look at books that have given me great pleasure in the past. These are books I can read over and over again. The only rule is that the book must have been published five or more years ago.

This is a fun easy read where everything is exaggerated, written in a diary style (hence the title) and with the addition of newspaper clippings. The diary entries felt very real, and very much like Martha thoughts. Her opinion at the very time that she was writing them down. Yes they were a bit exaggerated, but that is where the humour came from.

All the characters are likeable (even if at times Martha comes across as quite snobby and uppity) and the dilemma’s they find themselves in can be quite hilarious – Mum’s at the school gate, anyone?

Martha desperatley wanted to move to the countryside, to live the iydllic dream, but there is a sudden realisation that perhaps her dream is more of a nightmare. How will she cope?

Desperate Diary of a Country Housewife proves that sometimes “the grass is always greener on the other side”.

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