One evening in late June a group of women friends get together at Louise's house. Natalie brings the red wine, Tamara some gluten-free delight as well as her fully charged mobile (her husband still can't seem to get two children to bed without calling her at least 6 times). Fiona will haul out her aromatherapy kit and they can count on Lou to bring along at least a kilo of chocolate.

It is a regular reunion for eight very different women, with very different lives, secrets and fantasies. The only unifying factor? They are all mothers.

Be warned, you will recognise yourself and your friends within these pages. These are real conversations with real women, and they are conversations we've all had: about our weight, our fantasies - sexual and otherwise, those school lunchboxes, mother's guilt, our partners, the endless struggle to balance work, housework, family and sanity, and the seemingly impossible task of deciding what to feed the family every single night of the goddamn week.

In the tradition of I Don't Know How She Does It, with just a hint of The Bride Stripped Bare, this is a book about the tenuous nature of mothering, the beauty and complexity of friendships, and the way in which women support - and judge - one another. It is a revealing look at where women go as mothers, and at just how far it is possible to go without quite going insane.