Book Review: Why Mummy Doesn’t Give a F***!

Author: Gill Sims

Publisher: Harper Collins 2019

Genre: Adult Fiction

Pages: 339

Date Read: May – June ‘25  

Main Characters:

Ellen (The mum)

Simon (The dad)

Jane (The daughter)

Peter (The son)

Judgy & Barry (The dogs)

Paxo, Oxo and Bisto (The ‘chatty’ chickens)

Blurb:

Mummy dreams of a quirky rural cottage with roses around the door and chatty chickens in the garden. But life, as ever, is not quite as she planned. Paxo, Oxo and Bisto turn out to be highly rambunctious, rather than merely chatty, and the roses have jaggy thorns.

And now, her precious moppets have transformed into giant teenagers. Instead of wittering at her about who would win in a fight – a dragon badger or a ninja horse? – they are snapchatting the night away, stropping around the tiny cottage and communicating exclusively in grunts – except when they are demanding that Ellen provides taxi services in the small hours, or posing extravagantly on IG Stories. And there is never, but never, any milk in the house.

Can Mummy find that one happy moment just for her, now that she has re-located her pelvic floor?

Can she find some ‘me time’ while she still has all her own teeth?

And can she finally find a way to give zero f*cks?

My review:

This is the third book in a serious of books by the same author all with similarly amusing titles. However, having not read any of the other books, I can say with certainty that this book reads perfectly well as a stand-alone fiction. It is written in first person from Ellen’s point of view as if she were writing in a diary or mentally logging activities throughout a year. The book is divided into chapters according to month and each entry is dated so that it is very easy to dip in and out of. The book could be described as a ‘comedy fiction’ as in nearly every entry there is some sort of unfortunate, embarrassing circumstance or conundrum that the main character has to deal with. In this respect, the book is refreshingly down to earth and very relatable. It pokes fun at everyday modern family life and provides some light relief for other struggling mums. It reminded me a lot of scenes from the TV sitcom ‘Coupling’ as there are also side stories that dip into the lives of Ellen’s friends and their respective partners.

There were however some moments when I found myself wanting to put the book down and take a break from it. I think the readers enjoyment of the book will very much depend on their own current circumstance and mood. As in, the book is written to be dramatically amusing, so if that is what you are craving then this book is fabulous! Alternatively, if your life is filled with enough of its own drama and/or goings on, you might not necessarily want to read about a character’s equally ‘fun filled’ existence. Or maybe you do as you want to connect to a character in a similar circumstance? Either way I did certainly enjoy this book and was a little sad when it came to an end. There wasn’t really any majorly compounding ending other than the fact that it finished on New Year’s Eve, but I think that the whole point of this was to make a connection that there is no real major end in life (well, until the inevitable).

Star rating: 4 out of 5.