Tracy Crease

Tracy Crease, Site-editor for Billericay's About my Area.com and Organiser of Billercay
Parent's Forum.

Lord of the Flies - William Golding
A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys.At first they revel
in the freedom and celebrate the absence of grown-ups. Soon though, as the boys' fragile sense of
order begins to collapse, their fears start to take on a sinister, primitive significance. Suddenly,
the world of cricket, homework and adventure stories seems a long way away. The boys are faced with
a more pressing reality - survival - and the appearance of a terrifying beast who haunts their
dreams.

About a Boy - Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six,
comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women-through single-
parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bit nerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him
listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and
both can start to act their age.

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, "Brideshead Revisited" looks back to the
golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the
Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by
Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia,
Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them.

Out of Breathe - Julie MyersonIt's the summer holidays. And suddenly there's a strange boy at the bottom of Flynn's garden. Soon,
she and her wayward brother Sam are walking out of the house in the middle of a hot summer's night
and crossing four fields to find him again. But as well as the boy, Flynn and Sam find a whole gang
of runaway kids. There's Diana, who's just had a baby. There's Mouse, who's only five and likes to
set fire to things. And there is the boy himself, who stirs up feelings in Flynn that she's never
felt before.But there's also someone else - the unspeakably malign and terrifying presence they're
all running from. Escaping him, they stumble on an amazing and extraordinary house by a waterfall,
a house which seems to offer safety and meets their every desire and need - or does it? The youngest
character in the novel is one day old, and the oldest only seventeen. But the themes that lie at the
heart of this ferociously original story are as adult, unsettling and universal.

The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy - Fiona Neill
For Lucy Sweeney, motherhood isn't all astanga yoga and Cath Kidston prints. It's been years since
the dirty laundry pile was less than a metre high, months since Lucy remembered to have sex with her
husband, and a week since she last did the school run wearing pyjamas. Motherhood, it seems, has
more pitfalls than she might have expected. Caught between perfectionist Yummy Mummy No 1 and
hypercompetitive Alpha Mum, Lucy is in danger of losing the parenting plot. And worst of all, she's
alarmingly distracted by Sexy Domesticated Dad. It's only a matter of time before the dirty laundry
quite literally blows up in her face...

Bad Behaviour - Sheila Flanagan
Darcey and Nieve were best friends for life. Until Nieve stole the heart of Aidan, the boy Darcey
had fallen in love with while Nieve was travelling. Aidan was going to propose the very night Nieve
caught his eye, and Darcey had seen the ring. For the next ten years she's haunted by the memory of
her humiliation. No career success, no comfort her eccentric but loving family can offer, not even
(short-lived) marriage to Neil, can console her. And then the invitation comes: to the wedding of
Aidan and Nieve, neither of whom she's seen since they left Ireland for life in the USA. They're
coming home to have the wedding of a lifetime at Ireland's most expensive hotel. Will Darcey be
there? Will there be fireworks? And can the past be put to rest at last?

Coming up next week, I will be chatting to author Charles Cumming.