It was heartening to read this story of a woman down but not out. The shock of losing her husband to another woman is overcome with determination, a strong sense of humour...and a gypsy caravan. Together with her not always willing children she takes to the road with her not always willing horse, Doris. They find Bramley Cottage by the sea, settle in and explore a new life. With plenty of animals, friends and ideas for making money, life is too short for regret, her aim to give her children the best possible childhood and prepare them for life. However much life throws at her Nicola Hodgkinson bounces back, she finds new love, her children grow and leave home, there are grandchildren and new challenges to face. A joyful celebration of life, one that won the hearts of the judges of The People’s Author national writing competiton featured on the Alan Titchmarsh show.
This book is simply delightful. The first chapter has you hooked before you realize it and it’s not surprising it was the winner of the recent ‘People’s Author’ award from the Alan Titchmarsh TV show. With wit and warmth it is the antidote to all those misery memoirs.
'I gaze down and see your garden, the gate hanging off its hinges, the mess, your children running around half naked like little street urchins. It spoils the view entirely' When single mother Nicola Hodgkinson decided to follow her rural dream, it involved transporting her young family - three rowdy children, her beloved horse, a wilful donkey and two single-minded bantams - to a ramshackle cottage in an idyllic seaside village. The family soon attracts the horrified attention of nosey neighbours, and annoys motorists by hogging country lanes with a horse-drawn caravan. But amid the chaos, the magic of family life shines through, peppered with humour, love, moments of high drama, and nostalgia. LIFE WITH THE LID OFF is a brilliant, profound and funny evocation of a universal theme: how to find yourself again amongst the hurly burly of family life.
Nicola Hodgkinson is the winner of' The People's Author' national writing competition as featured on THE ALAN TITCHMARSH SHOW. She lives with a menagerie of animals in Suffolk, where she writes in her shed.
