HOW TO FAKE BEING TIDY

Funny true stories about the everyday dramas that can make or break friendships, cooking, housekeeping and the domestic chaos that always threatens to get the upper hand, written in the tradition of Nora Ephron.

"My mother wasn't much of a housekeeper. She wasn't much of a cook either, although she tried. She longed to live a more unconventional life. Admirably high-minded, but it meant I never learnt to fold a towel." In these funny, sometimes poignant, stories, award-winning feature writer Fenella Souter celebrates the highs and lows of domestic life - from her attempts to run the house like a grown-up, to lessons in good cooking; from accidentally killing her wisteria, divorcing the cat and shirt-fronting bossy tradies, to wondering if the 'hostess gift' is still a thing or why some people have impeccable taste. Fenella is a prose stylist of the highest order, and her wry, observational humour is very much in the tradition of the great Nora Ephron. Her book is aimed particularly at a generation of which many were raised in a world of genteel middle-class protocols and politenesses from which they have never been able to entirely shake themselves free. HOW TO FAKE BEING TIDY is a humorous book that at the same times manages to convey some very sage advice. Fenella Souter is an award-winning feature writer and former long-time editor of Good Weekend, in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, whose work has appeared in magazines and newspapers over many years. More recently, she has also worked as a radio producer, co-producing several documentary series for ABC Radio.