Everything and Nothing

Judy

Beware all busy career-stressed mums! Reading this will raise your blood pressure and strike fear into your already anxious hearts.I truly enjoyed this wonderful debut novel. It is written with real vigour, and anyone, male or female, who has ever had to cope with bringing up small, demanding children, while simultaneously holding down a stressful job, while keeping on top of a large mortgage, will at once identify with the chaotic lives of Ruth and Christian, a married couple whose relationship is close to breaking point.

Abandoned by their nanny, who can no longer cope with their children, one of whom cries all night, every night, and the other who at nearly three, won't eat, lives on milk sucked from a baby's bottle, and won't talk into the bargain, Ruth and Christian are at the end of their tether.Then Agatha comes into their lives: a seemingly experienced nanny who takes charge of their messy house, loves the children, gets Betty to sleep through the night, secretly cures little Hal of his eating problems, and even persuades him to talk.

Bliss. For a while. Ruth and Christian's marriage has serious problems which even a Mary Poppins could not solve. And when Christian finds himself once more becoming involved with his ex-mistress, Ruth feels she can no longer live a lie, and asks him to leave. But their problems are dwarfed by what is happening to their children. Agatha, the perfect nanny, is in fact deeply sisnister. A truly excellent novel. An object lesson; a fable, really. Terrifically enjoyable.

Richard

As Judy writes, anyone with kids will read this book and gulp. There, but for the grace of God, go I - and Judy - we both thought. Those awful pressures of early parenthood, with babies who won't sleep, eat, and stubbornly refuse to reach their childhood milestones, are vividly-drawn here. Most of all, the crippling, mind-destroying lack of sleep. Ruth and Christian become distorted shadows of themselves, wracked with angst, and full of resentment against each other as they try to keep going in demanding jobs so they can pay the mortgage of their comfortable, enviable house.

Judy also tells me that every mother feels guilty when she leaves her kids to go to work, and secretly agonises about whether her children love the nanny more than her. So the tale of how Agatha worms her way into their lives, how she magically creates order from chaos, transforming the home into a fragrant and perfectly organised environment, filled with delicious baking smells, crisply-ironed sheets and smiley, happy infants, is very close to the bone.

While Ruth and Christian revel in their newfound domestic perfection, disaster is fast approaching. The strange, motherly, but deeply dysfunctional Agatha was never going to be content with simply being a domestic slave. She wants the lot. And she's determined to get it.Like Judy, I enjoyed the strong writing style of this book. Ruth and Christian both know they are living a lie. As the title says: they have everything - and nothing.