What About Me?' and 'What About Me, Too?'

Kate Figes

Description

Teenage life from two perspectives - Frankie's diary and her mother's emails to sis in Oz. Love gets lost for a while through misunderstandings....

Informations

• Publié par: Hearst Magazines UK
• Date de parution: 06 août 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909748019
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Copyright
This omnibus collection copyright Hearst Magazines UK (The National Magazine Company Limited) 2013
What About Me? 2005 Kate Figes
What About Me, Too? 2006 Kate Figes
The right of Kate Figes to be identified as the author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs Patents Act of 1988
ISBN: 978-1-909748-01-9
This digital edition published by UKEdit Books in 2013
UKEdit Books is an imprint of the National Magazine Company Ltd
Published by Hearst Magazines UK (The National Magazine Company Limited), 72 Broadwick Street, London W1F 9EP All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Introduction
The texture of family life changes profoundly when the eldest child hits adolescence. As parents we cannot help but feel that we are losing them - losing the sweetness of their sweet cherub like physicality as well as their unmitigated devotion. We also feel our parent authority sliding away. As mothers of teenage daughters a very difficult emotion also creeps in as their flower begins to blossom and ours hits middle age.
Our daughters seem to be able to look forward to a life ahead of promise; we look back at our mistakes, regrets and at rising piles of washing as girls begin to change clothes ten times a day. They ooze sexuality, the flesh around their foal like limbs looks taut and lithe; ours sags with the plummeting hormones of middle age. They retreat to their rooms, seek out comfort and joy from their friends rather than us, making us feel utterly redundant and in their way.
It can be a trying time. Two thirds of parents say that they find bringing up teenagers the hardest stage of family life. There are however many more similarities than differences between life as a teenage girl and a mother in mid-life. With fluctuating hormones we both can be grumpy, preoccupied and feel profoundly insecure about microscopic physical changes, whether that s spots or cellulite. Neither of us has anything to wear that we can feel totally at ease with - she plays with identity and sexuality; we cross nervously into the styles of middle age, covering more than we expose. Or should we keep on, wearing purple and leopard skin prints?
It is the similarities between us as girls, of whatever age, which offers the key to a smoother family life, for teenagers and their mothers. And it was to this end that I wrote these two novels, What About Me? and What About Me, Too? collected together for the first time in this delightful omnibus. I wanted to show two very different interpretations of the same year in the life of Sue, a busy GP and mother, and her daughter Frankie between her 13 th and 14 th birthday, as her parents marriage begins to deteriorate. In the sequel, we see how family life has moved on after Sue s divorce. But I also wanted to capture the vivacity and the humour of living with teenagers which is so often what keeps us all on the right side of sanity.
These were never meant to be crossover novels, but I have been heartened by the way that so many mothers and their daughters have read these books together and then talked about the issues that they raise. For both mothers and daughters get upset about the new sense of estrangement which can enter the relationship. Daughters want their mothers to understand them more and support them through the profound difficulties girls face growing up today. It helps us too as mothers to see how alike they are to us when the temperature rises with arguments and defiance as they try to carve out a life that is different and distinct to our own. Now that my daughters are young women, and I spend more time talking to other mothers and schools about Raising Girls , I have no doubt that we have so much more to offer our daughters with the age old maternal wisdom than we ever give ourselves credit for.
I hope that, whatever your age, you enjoy them. And please do get in touch with me on my website www.katefiges.co.uk to tell me what you think or comment on my blog about mothers and daughters http://spotsandcellulite.wordpress.com
Kate x
Contents
Copyright
Introduction
What About Me?
What About Me, Too?
What About Me?
What About Me?
The Diaries and E-mails of a Menopausal Mother and her Teenage Daughter
Sue is a forty-six-year-old GP, mother of two, wife of one. Frankie is her older daughter, just fourteen, ready to start out in life. The pair are diametrically opposite in years and energy, yet both teeter on the brink of the next big thing.
For Sue, forty-six meeting fourteen is where menopause matches adolescence, anxiety is a mother's middle name, and the new best thing is going to bed. And Frankie? She's thrown off the sugar and spice chrysalis, is surgically attached to her mobile phone, and is learning about boys, padded bras and the absurdities of her parents.
Nothing in common? Well, for starters weight worries, man troubles and a shared desire to break free of the shackle that is home. Oh, and their emails and diaries...
Wickedly funny, perceptive and at times very tender, What About Me? is a wonderful portrait of real life in an average household, sure to strike a familiar chord with mothers and daughters everywhere.
'Funny, touching and all too familiar' Woman & Home
'Entertaining and insightful' Image
'This shrewd novel offers two different takes on growing up' You Magazine
'Have just finished What About Me? It was fab. I really got involved with the characters and felt such emotion for Frankie. I understood her angst and it made me look at my teenage son more lovingly when he came home from school. There were times when I wanted to shake Sue and give Matthew a piece of my mind. So thank you for a great novel about family life – and I would say it was a pretty accurate one.' Jan Cotterill
Friday June 15. Nothing worth watching on TV, no one's picking up the phone, so I thought I'd start a diary.
Dear Diary,
It's my 14th birthday tomorrow and I'm going shopping with Mum. Actually I'd rather go shopping with Ruby, Fran, Nat, Hayley, Saskia and Serena, but I need her credit card to get anything worth having. I can't wait. I want a new pair of jeans, some little T-shirts, a skirt perhaps, some flip flops, a new jumper, a hoody. I need at least three shades of lipstick, mascara, eye-liner, a bag, a belt, spot concealer, stuff for my hair, a padded bra so that it might look like I've actually got some tits and don't have to stuff loo paper down my front anymore to make it look like I've got some, and I'd really, really LOVE to have a really sexy long dress for parties and film premieres, and some of those boots with high heels and pointy toes. I wonder if I'll feel any different when I'm 14. It's got to be better than 13. And when you're 14 it's only two years until you're 16 when you really can do what you like. All I REALLY want for my birthday is tits. Hopefully, by the time I'm 16 I'll have some, otherwise I'll have to get a boob job. Mum'd never let me, so I'd better start saving now, just in case.
From: Sue James Sent: Friday 15 June 20.06 To: Angela James Subject: I miss you
Darling Ange,
I know you're on the other side of the world and probably (hopefully) fast asleep, but shopping is a feeling that unites women all over the world. Imagine then how excited I was when Frankie said that she wanted to go to Oxford Street with me for her birthday (which is tomorrow). I know she just needs me to pay for things, but spending some time alone with her these days is precious, even if that clocks in at around £50 an hour. She spends every minute of her free time either on the phone to her friends or with them. She's all giggly, cocky and chatty with them and then totally silent, surly or rude to me. Like Jekyll and Hyde. With one of her friends the relationship seems only just short of being sexual. They're always hugging and kissing and Frankie's face lights up in her company, it's as if she's in love. We had a huge row about it last week. I can't believe it but I actually found myself telling her that I thought this friend was a bad influence on her, and then remembered how Mum had said exactly the same thing to me when I was a teenager, and felt sick. Frankie just screamed insults, said I had no right to criticize her friends, stormed off to her room and wouldn't speak to me for two days. She's right, but so am I. I do have a right to comment on who she spends her time with, I'm her mother. For all I know Ruby could be smoking dope and taking her to under-age drinking clubs. I know she's just a teenager and that all this will pass, but it just makes me feel so sad, all this distance between us. She used to be affectionate like that with me. Now it's clear that she doesn't even want to touch me. All I get is selfishness, the strops and a clear indication that she finds me deeply irritating or embarrassing to be with.
It's a cliché but they really do grow up so fast Ange, so you make the most of those nephews of mine because in ten years' time you'll hardly see them. I look at Frankie sometimes and wonder what happened to that adorable, cuddly child. When she was small I really used to notice the roses and honeysuckles of June, because they had completely passed me by in the year when she was born, I was so wrapped up in her and the aftermath of birth. Now that's gone and Blooming June doesn't hold that same magic anymore and I can really chart the years flying by as she's got older. They are so heavily punctuated by terms and things like sports day and the Christmas Carol concert