A guide to Alexandra Potter, author of Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

Meet Nell. Her life is a mess. Having left a great job in New York to start a new life in California with the man she loves, she's now back in London under a literal and metaphorical cloud. Unemployed, living in a stranger's spare room and having to compete with children, careers and a wealthy usurper called Annabel for the attention of her friends, she starts up a secret podcast as an outlet for her entertainingly expressed but deeply heartfelt frustration. Through this, alongside an unexpected friendship with octogenarian widow Cricket, things finally start to look up. This funny, moving read inspired the hilarious new US comedy Not Dead Yet.

Swapping her non-stop urban life for the Yorkshire Dales, Liv Brooks is determined to make a fresh start. She seems, however, to be suffering from a case of same rubbish, different view. Lonely and lost, she adopts an old dog called Harry, and through their daily walks slowly starts to instigate change – both for herself and those she meets on her trips around the village. There's Valentine, an old man who's also lonely. Stanley, a little boy who's scared of everyone. And Maya, a teenager angry with everyone and everything. As unlikely friendships form, Liv begins to realise that when everything feels desperate, and life seems to be falling apart, sometimes you just need one good thing.

Thought things were all wrapped up for Nell? Think again. Falling in love may be easy, staying in love, however, can take work. . . Friendships are tested, the past won't stay there, celebrity-scented candles and Instagram filters are simply not working hard enough and it's time for Nell to escape to LA with her eighty-something best friend. Fortunately for us, it seems she has some more confessions to share.