Title: Man at the Helm
Author: Nina Stibbe
Pages: 313 Pages
Publisher: Penguin UK / Viking
The Blurb
Man at the Helm, the debut novel from Nina Stibbe - the much-loved author of Love, Nina - is a wildly comic, brilliantly sharp-eyed novel about the horrors of being an attractive divorcée in an English village in the 1970s, and a family's fall from grace . . .
My sister and I and our little brother were born (in that order) into a very good situation and apart from the odd new thing life was humdrum and comfortable until an evening in 1970 when my mother listened in to my father's phone call and ended up blowing her nose on a tea towel - a thing she'd only have done in an absolute emergency.
Not long after her parents' separation, heralded by an awkward scene involving a wet Daily Telegraph and a pan of cold eggs, nine-year-old Lizzie Vogel, her sister and little brother and their now divorcée mother are packed off to a small, slightly hostile village in the English countryside. Their mother is all alone, only thirty-one years of age, with three young children and a Labrador. It is no wonder, when you put it like that, that she becomes a menace and a drunk. And a playwright. Worried about the bad playwriting - though more about becoming wards of court and being sent to the infamous Crescent Home for Children - Lizzie and her sister decide to contact, by letter, suitable men in the area. In order to stave off the local social worker they urgently need to find a new Man at the Helm.
The Review
Man at the Helm is a charming novel told from the child narrator's perspective. It follows Lizzie and her family who have to move to the country after her mum and dad divorce. The scorn and judgement they face from being a family with an unwed mother is indicative of the attitudes of the time.
Whilst trying to find a place in their new home town, Lizzie and her sister are determined to find her mother a new husband. The only problem being that most of the local men are married and their mother is…well…eccentric.
The emotional and financial journey they family go on is laugh-out-loud funny and I spent the majority of the novel chuckling to myself at the misunderstandings that took place.
Man at the Helm is a joyful novel. It's not one that will tax your brain when reading. It is heartwarming and a perfect read for those wanting a book that isn't too challenging.
Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe is available now.
For more information regarding Nina Stibbe (@ninastibbe) please visit her Twitter account.
For more information regarding Viking (@VikingBooks) please visit their Twitter account.
For more information regarding Penguin UK (@PenguinUKBooks) please visit www.penguin.co.uk.

Another gorgeous book by Nina Stibbe - this time detailing her quirky childhood. Such a comforting read.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.