My Mad Fat Diary

It's 1989 and Rae Earl is a fat, boy-mad 17-year-old girl, living with her mum and their deaf white cat in a council house with a mint-green bathroom suite and a kitchen Rae can't keep away from. This is the hilarious real-life diary she kept during that fateful year - with characters like her evil friend Bethany, Bethany's besotted boyfriend, and the boys from the school up the road (who have code names like Haddock and Battered Sausage). My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary evokes a vanished time when Charles and Di are still together, the Berlin wall is up, and Kylie is expected to disappear from the charts at any moment. It will appeal to anyone who's lived through the 1980s. But it will also strike a chord with anyone who's ever been a confused, lonely teenager who clashes with their mother, takes themselves VERY seriously and has no idea how utterly funny they are. (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton