Hey Yeah Right Get A Life

‘There are short story writers who render the genre mere snipped-up sections of prose, the poor relation of the novel; and then there are those, like Simpson, who elevate it to an art form all of its own, who make you see its point’ Maggie O’Farrell

Helen Simpson’s third collection is a bold, honest exploration of the trials and the rewards of motherhood.

‘Her stories are – for those who, like me, recognise the truth in every word – like a reprieve… Sharp, poetic and marvellously witty’ Kate Kellaway, Observer

Here are tales of a highflyer stuck at an interminable Burns Night celebration, increasingly aware of the babysitter waiting for her at home; an exhausted mother longing for adult conversation but whose son unwittingly precludes it; and a teenage girl whose fraught encounter with a harried mum of one brings newfound appreciation for her own capable mother of four. Most strikingly of all we meet Dorrie, whose efforts to calm her tinderbox of a family leave her struggling to contain her own emotions.

Hey Yeah Right Get a Life is a singular achievement- relatable, perceptive and utterly poignant.

‘It’s a brilliant, painful, funny and courageous book’ Esther Freud, Guardian