GENTRIFICATION
When she’s not skivvying after Colin, her workshy slob of a partner, mother of two Maia Etxeleku earns a living cleaning the houses of “posh women” for whom a full-on day is the morning school run, lunch with “the girls” and getting their highlights touched up at the hairdresser. Maia doesn’t envy them, but she does want a better life for her two kids although she’s not quite sure how to go about getting it. When a dead client leaves her an unusual inheritance with a couple of strings attached, Maia is suddenly catapulted into a middle class world of Kumon math classes, organic food, and a culture where kids are groomed for Oxbridge from the moment they learn to walk!
Can Maia navigate the pressures of working class life against a middle class mafia who wouldn’t be seen dead in a Poundland store, and for whom instant coffee is an absolute no, no when only “arpeggio, livanto, capriccio, espresso, vivalto or finezzo” will do? The School Gate Survival Guide, the sparkling novel by Kerry Fisher, is a delicious comedy of manners that will leave you howling with laughter at the snobbery and jaw dropping pretentiousness of the middle classes in the green belt.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
© Archant Community Media Limited used under limited licence
Click the covers to find out about other books by author Kerry Fisher. The School Gate Survival Guide is also published as The Not So Perfect Mum.
