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Wives Like Us cover art

Wives Like Us

By: Plum Sykes
Narrated by: Annabel Mullion
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Summary

So wickedly smart, so effortless, so chic and hilarious. Plum Sykes is in a class of her own when it comes to peeling back the layers of status paranoia amongst the poshest of the posh as she delivers a delectable tale that you never want to end.’ Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians

*

Take a grand English country house, one (heartbroken) American divorcée, three rich wives, two tycoons, and one (bereaved) butler; put them all into the blender and out comes the impossibly funny Wives Like Us.

Welcome to the rose-strewn county of Oxfordshire and the Cotswold villages of Little Bottom, Middle Bottom, Great Bottom, and Monkton Bottom, recently annexed by a glittering new breed of female: the Country Princess.

Following a ghastly row about a missing suite of diamonds, Tata Hawkins has flounced out of Monkton Bottom Manor with her daughter, Minty, and Executive Butler Ian Palmer in tow, decamping to the Old Coach House to teach her husband, Bryan, a lesson.

But things don’t go to plan: Bryan disappears to Venice with a bikini designer; Selby Fairfax, the glamorous American divorcée who has inherited the beautiful estate next door, refuses Tata’s neighborly overtures; and Tata’s very best friends, Fernanda Ovington-Williams and Sophie Thompson, are distracted by their own heartaches. Worst of all, Ian has nowhere to store his collection of vintage Gucci loafers.

With the help of a pig farmeress moonlighting as a personal assistant, a male model moonlighting as a stable hand, and a London barrister moonlighting as a gentleman farmer, can Ian restore harmony to the Bottoms?

‘A fabulous and funny bucolic romp – Plum Sykes does it again.’ Hannah Rothschild, author of The Improbability of Love

'Wives Like Us may be set in the most gorgeous English manor house, but I’d happily sleep in the shed if it meant I could tag along with these marvelous characters – Tata, Minty, and their chic and crafty butler.’ Jenny Jackson, author of Pineapple Street

'Delightful' Vogue

©2024 Plum Sykes (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

‘I absolutely adored Wives Like Us, I thought it was so fun and funny, a romp and a riot - and a glorious dollop of much needed escapism.' Daisy Buchanan

What listeners say about Wives Like Us

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So fun and lighthearted

A refreshing holiday read or car journey listen. Couldn’t stop! A fun, uplifting, lighthearted story. Love these

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great story

Super fun story, Great characters, great fun, superb narrator. Really loved it, fab listening while dog walking

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Joyful easy listen

Just a fun easy listen with great humour threaded through the story, very enjoyable storyline

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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great holiday listen

outstanding, fun, heartwarming book.. and read by someone with an amazing voice. This book made my holiday!

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Froth but fun

Loved it - think you might need to know the area , products etc to appreciate it but will be a great hit with those in the know! A successor to Jilly ?

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Loved it

I thought it was a 21century ‘Cranford’. Very easy listening and loved the narrator’s different voices for the characters.

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Absolute twaddle

Beyond irritating, stupid, vapid, boring, nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. Less than 1 star. RETURNED.

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Trite FC

Thought I’d give it a go because I heard the author on woman’s hour and I’m not averse to a bit of fluffy listening. But really I wasted my time. No substance, gossamer plot, unloveable characters, no point.

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Pretty poor stuff

This book has been compared with Jilly Cooper and Nancy Mitford, but despite the obvious fabulousness of Plum Sykes, whose lovely house tours in Vogue and Architectural Digest have always been brilliant, and who has impeccable style, the writing falls far short of what I assume were models of some sort when she was working on the text. There's a large cast, but the characters are underdeveloped; and although lots of reviews have called it funny, I think they must have been detecting some sort of social satire: the writing itself isn't witty. It might make a better television series, as the houses would be great. The narrator on the audiobook doesn't help - some very curious pronunciations - and are the grammatical mistakes hers, or the author's? I can't tell, as I don't have a print copy to hand. The physical book is beautifully produced.

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