Excess Baggage: a brilliant, laugh-out-loud gem of a novel about family... and all that entails

Judy Astley

Aug. 2011 · Random House

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Let bestselling author Judy Astley sweep you away with this insightful, uplifting and hilarious novel where a family holiday turns into more of a torment than a treat... Perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan, Milly Johnson and Trisha Ashley.

"I just love Judy Astley's books" - JILL MANSELL
"Wickedly funny" - DAILY MAIL
"A funny, warm and moving novel" - SUNDAY MIRROR
"If I am feeling in need of blue skies and sunshine and none are to be had here I just pick [this] up and settle down to while away an hour or two" -- ***** Reader review
"A really light and amusing story" -- ***** Reader review

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IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT, DON'T BRING THE FAMILY

As a penniless and partnerless house-painter with an expired lease on her flat and a twelve-year-old daughter, Lucy could hardly turn down her parents' offer to take them on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Caribbean.

She'd just have to put up with her sister Theresa (making no secret of preferring Tuscany as a holiday destination) and brother Simon (worrying that there might be some sinister agenda behind their parents' wish to take them all away) with their various spouses, teenagers and young children.

In a luxury hotel, with bright sunshine, swimming, diving, glorious food and friendly locals, any family tensions should have melted away in the fabulous heat. The children should have been angelic, the teenagers cheerful, the adults relaxed and happy.

But some problems just refuse to be left at home.

Autoren-Profil

Judy Astley was frequently told off for day-dreaming at her drearily traditional school but has found it to be the ideal training for becoming a writer. There were several false-starts to her career: secretary at an all-male Oxford college (sacked for undisclosable reasons), at an airline (decided, after a crash and a hijacking, that she was safer elsewhere) and as a dress designer (quit before anyone noticed she was adapting Vogue patterns). She spent some years as a parent and as a painter before sensing that the day was approaching when she'd have to go out and get a Proper Job. With a nagging certainty that she was temperamentally unemployable, and desperate to avoid office coffee, having to wear tights every day and missing out on sunny days on Cornish beaches with her daughters, she wrote her first novel, Just for the Summer. She has now had eleven novels published by Black Swan.