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  • Published: 1 April 2009
  • ISBN: 9780552774673
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $32.99

Fly in the Ointment




Are we all doomed to repeat our parents' mistakes? A biting new comic novel from Anne Fine

Guilt is in the eye of the beholder ...

When her cold and indifferent husband vanishes, so does Lois's old life. Now she is ready to take her chances again. There's only one fly in the ointment: Janie-Gay, ex-partner of the son Lois lost to drugs, and spiteful mother of the small, neglected child she can't get out of her mind.

Caring's not something one can lay aside, and Lois is soon tangled in webs of deceit. Worse, she is on a collision course with a remorseless society that claims to support and protect. Now, more than ever, she could use the skills of her once frozen heart...

  • Published: 1 April 2009
  • ISBN: 9780552774673
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Anne Fine

Anne Fine is one of our most distinguished writers for children. She has written over fifty highly acclaimed books and has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and both the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year and the Carnegie Medal twice over. Anne was appointed the Children’s Laureate from 2001-3, and her work has been translated into over forty languages. In 2003 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an OBE. Anne lives in County Durham.

Anne Fine was born and educated in the Midlands, and now lives in County Durham. She has written numerous highly acclaimed and prize-winning books for children and adults.
Her novel The Tulip Touch won the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award; Goggle-Eyes won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal, and was adapted for television by the BBC; Flour Babies won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award; Bill's New Frock won a Smarties Prize, and Madame Doubtfire has become a major feature film starring Robin Williams. Anne was the Children's Laureate 2001 - 2003 and won an OBE in 2003.

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Praise for Fly in the Ointment

Anne Fine is on sparkling form

Sunday Times

A sharp sense of danger always crackles in the background whenever Anne Fine writes for adults

The Independent

Subtle, nuanced, beguiling and often shocking.It will smash and grab your attention right from the start

The Scotsman

Anne Fine's trademark bite is ever-present in this short, sharp and typically dark novel ... leavened with an acute sense of humour

The Daily Telegraph

Deploying both wit and daring, Fine pokes away at the cracks in our moral compass with the sharpest of pens

Sunday Times

Fine is a storyteller of brilliance, and this short tragedy is utterly compelling.

Kate Saunders -, The Times