Swansong — Victoria Routledge

The sparkling new novel from the bestselling author of...AND FOR STARTERS. Patrick, Robert, Greg and Barney Mulligan have little in common apart from their mother Rosetta's dark brown eyes, a certain bloody-mindedness, and the kind of mutual suspicion which only flourishes successfully in larger families. In fact, the sole thing they agree on is that mild-mannered Brian, logistics manager turned global tour co-ordinator, cannot possibly be their father. And that there is nothing glamorous about a tour-bus toilet. Rosetta was not a conventional mother - 'Mum' being a banned word, for a start - and for twenty years, she has resisted tempting offers to write about her life on the road. But with Barney, her adored last chick, about to be shoved from the nest, and newly remarried Brian on the verge of mid-life fatherhood with his Swiss masseuse wife, the time seems right to parcel up her past and move on. The trouble is, how much of it will be news to her boys?