Synopsis: Allison Pearson’s debut novel, I Don’t Know How She Does It was published in 2002 to critical acclaim and huge international success. It quickly became the seminal comedy on working motherhood and has retained that position ever since, selling 3.5 million copies with translations in 32 languages.

‘It’s quite magical to see the characters I coaxed out of my exhausted maternal brain in north London a decade ago actually walking and talking up on the big screen’ Allison Pearson

This September, Allison’s ‘sparkling black comedy’ comes to the movie screen with Sarah Jessica Parker starring as Kate Reddy. Filmed in New York and directed by Douglas McGrath (Emma, Infamous), produced by Donna Gigliotti (Shakespeare in Love) and with a screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada), it features a stellar cast including Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear and Kelsey Grammar.

‘It’s been almost a decade since I Don’t Know How She Does It was published, yet the concerns it addresses still feel incredibly fresh and relevant. In Britain, in particular, a lot of things for working women have changed for the better... but the great conundrum of how to combine a career and a family is still there. Women still carry the puzzle of family life in their heads.’ Allison Pearson

Still firing debate about the compromises, guilt and tensions that face working mothers 10 years after its original publication, I Don’t Know How She Does It
is as relevant to a new generation of mothers and mothers-to-be as it ever was; a testament to the greatest juggling act in the world.

ALLISON PEARSON:
Allison Pearson was born in South Wales. An award-winning journalist, she was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards for I Don't Know How She Does It. THE social comedy on working motherhood, it has sold over 3.5 million copies in 32 languages and is now a movie starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Her second novel, I Think I Love You was critically acclaimed and is currently being turned into a musical.
Allison has written for many magazines and newspapers including the Independent on Sunday, Observer and the London Evening Standard. For four years, she was the popular Wednesday columnist of the Daily Mail. Allison is now a columnist and chief interviewer at the Daily Telegraph and lives in Cambridge with her family.

I Don’t Know How She Does It opens in the UK on the 16th September

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Know-How-She-Does/dp/0099570068/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314613844&sr=1-2

Hot Brands Cool Places Verdict
If you were too busy doing the balancing act yourself to read this book when it was first published, do read it now, it still has a relevance and its poignancy will make you both laugh and cry.

Soon to be released on film, this is one of the must-read books of a generation, beautifully written and capturing the real life dilemmas faced by women juggling home and career. Impossible to put down, we loved it! Highly Recommended!