The Control Freak Chronicles

A new-look concept-led book about learning to let go from the bestselling author of The Playground Mafia.

Scandal, backstabbing, illicit affairs ... a fab, girlie read!

Mums will be able to see the truth behind this fun novel

An award-winning broadcaster and journalist, Sarah Tucker was a presenter on the BBC1 Holiday programme and, more recently, anchored I Want That House Revisited on ITV1. She regularly contributes to women's magazines, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and The Guardian. Sarah Tucker is the author of The Playground Mafia, The Battle for Big School, School's Out and three romantic comedies published by Harlequin.

At forty-four, Helena Treadwell thought she had everything sorted. After divorcing her control freak ex, Leonard Wallis, she and her nine-year-old son, Freddie, relocated to her home town of Castleford. She's made a happy home for them and has a successful career as a radio presenter. Finally she feels she's clawing back the control and confidence she lost to Leonard. But life is never simple for long ... 
 
Helena unexpectedly loses her job and Leonard announces that not only does he want Freddie to attend a private boarding school, he's also decided to move to Castleford to set up home with 'the other woman'. Suddenly Helena's losing control again, as her past comes back to unravel her future.

You Don’t Know Who Your Friends Are Until You Go On Holiday With Them

School's Out

From the author of The Playground Mafia and The Battle for Big School, a brilliantly funny tale of a summer holiday gone mad ...

An award-winning broadcaster and journalist, Sarah Tucker was a presenter on the BBC1 Holiday programme and, more recently, anchored I Want That House Revisited on ITV1. She regularly contributes to women's magazines, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and The Guardian. Sarah Tucker is the author of The Playground Mafia, The Battle for Big School and three romantic comedies published by Harlequin.

In school playgrounds across the country parents huddle in worried packs, desperately putting together their final plans to survive the summer weeks of mayhem - school is officially out! 
 
For once, Amanda has a simple, cheap and fail-safe plan to make it through the summer holidays with her three overexcited offspring. But a last-minute addition of fellow-mum Suzanne and her perfect son Orlando quickly shatters Amanda's vision of the quintessential bucket-and-spade summer adventure. 
 
In fact, before she even makes it to the picture-perfect Cornish idyll that is home to her one-time playground comrade Skyler, Amanda has to endure tantrums, floods, and an eerie B&amp;B, all with three ratty kids and a carsick dog in tow. When they finally arrive, dishevelled and exhausted, she discovers that not only must she endure Suzanne at close quarters in a cramped cottage, but also that Skyler's business in dire need of a helping hand. 
 
In the weeks that ensue, Amanda discovers there is only one way to survive the summer holidays, and that's with a stiff drink, a pair of wellies and a bucket-full of bonhomie!

The Playground Mafia

A fantastic commercial concept, this is one of Arrow's most exciting women's fiction launches in 2006

Scandal, backstabbing, illicit affairs...a fab, girlie read!

An entertaining insight into school politics. You'll laugh and cringe at how cliquey and competitive mums can be.

An award-winning broadcaster and journalist, Sarah Tucker was a presenter on the BBC1 Holiday programme and anchored I Want That House Revisited on ITV1. She regularly contributes to women's magazines, the Sunday Times Travel Magazine and the Guardian. 
 Sarah Tucker is the author of The Playground Mafia, The Battle for Big School, School's Out, The Control Freak Chronicles and three romantic comedies published by Harlequin.

Meet Caroline Gray: divorcee and newly-single mother. Firmly closing the door on her acrimonious divorce, Caroline and son Ben have moved to trendy Frencham where they join Caroline's long-time best friends, Heather and Eva. Settling into their new life is easy, but nothing has prepared Caroline for the demands of motherhood at The Sycamore, the school the trio's beloved offspring attend. Forget classroom bullies, forget trips to the head's office, this is full-scale adult playground politics. This is battle with the mothers who won't take no for an answer -- the Playground Mafia. 
 
Amidst the four-wheel drives, Ben's complicated afterschool play-date schedule and her friends' perilous extra-marital affairs, Caroline tries to keep a low and very single profile. But it's not long before she too finds herself under the mafia's scandal-radar, and her life takes an unexpected turn ...

Sarah Tucker

Playground fighting goes beyond the school gates in this fun, feisty read. A group of parents risk marriage and friendship to win coveted places for their kids at top grammar school The Oaks.

This really is a must-read - entertaining, humorous and topical!

There are 50 places at The Oaks, the best grammar school in Letchbury, and 1,000 children applying. Competition is fierce and parents are prepared to do anything and everything to get their child one of the coveted spaces. 
 
Close friends Lily, Julie, Karen and house husband Paul aren't overly concerned. After all, aren't their children bright and sociable enough? But they're quickly shaken out of their complacency when enrolment time approaches and turns out to be little more than a rigged lottery, where only the most ruthless hold the cards. Marriages and friendships crumble under the pressure, fake addresses are abound and tutors rates soar. 
 
As measures get more and more extreme, the four quickly rally their troops and throw themselves into the battle for big school. Initially wary to be in competition with each other, they realise that the only way of out-smarting the rest of the pack is by coming up with a plan. Because getting their kids into The Oaks will demand determination and strategy akin to Mission Impossible ...

Sarah Tucker

Praise for The Battle for Big School

Scandal, backstabbing, illicit affairs ... a fab, girlie read!

Mums will be able to see the truth behind this fun novel

A real laugh-out-loud tale

Scandal, backstabbing, illicit affairs ... a fab, girlie read!

Mums will be able to see the truth behind this fun novel

A real laugh-out-loud tale

Scandal, backstabbing, illicit affairs ... a fab, girlie read!

Mums will be able to see the truth behind this fun novel

A real laugh-out-loud tale

Books by Sarah Tucker

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