The Defrosting of Charlotte Smail

After flattening a friend's dog, carelessly losing not one job but three, and waving her daughter off to spend Christmas overseas, Charlotte hits the wall. Years of suppressed heartbreak and disappointment overwhelm her and the fine thread of sanity finally snaps. Consequently, having thrown the entire contents of her house on to the street, she's found by the police lying on her back under a Christmas tree with an empty bottle of Port and a half-eaten lump of Stilton. Charlotte needs to claw her way back from the brink and start again. But can she build a bigger, brighter and better existence this time around? The Defrosting of Charlotte Small is wonderfully observed and genuinely funny, mining the glorious seam of black humour that is fast becoming Annabel Giles's trademark.