HRT: Husband Replacement Therapy

Description

What do you do when you're told you've got terminal cancer at 50? Take up crochet, get religion and bow out gracefully? Or upend your life and spend every remaining minute exploring new pleasures? Ruby has always been the generous mediator among her friends, family and colleagues, which is why they have all turned up to celebrate her 50th birthday. But after a few too many glasses of champers, Ruby's speech doesn't exactly go to plan. Instead of delivering the witty and warm words her guests are expecting, Ruby takes her moment in the spotlight to reveal what she really thinks of every one of them. She also accuses her husband, Harry, of having an affair. Saving the best till last, Ruby lambasts her octogenarian mother for a lifetime of playing her three daughters against each other. It's blisteringly brutal. As the stunned gathering gawks at Ruby, the birthday girl concludes her bravura monologue with the throwaway comment that she has terminal cancer. She has cashed in her life savings and plans on taking her two sisters cruising into the sunset for a dose of Husband Replacement Therapy. Courageous? Or ruthlessly selfish? But, do they even want to go with her now that she's cast herself off into social Siberia?

Kathy Lette is a celebrated and outspoken comic writer who has an inimitable take on serious current issues. She is the author of fifteen bestselling novels including Puberty Blues which was made into a major film and a TV miniseries, Mad Cows which was also made into a film, starring Joanna Lumley, and How to Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints), which was staged by the Victorian Opera. She pioneered smart, funny, feminist fiction and has been published in seventeen languages. Kathy is an autodidact (clearly it's a word she taught herself) but has honorary doctorates from Southampton and Wollongong universities, and a Senior Honorary Fellowship from Regent's University London. She is an ambassador for Plan International and the National Autistic Society UK. Kathy lives in Sydney and London, and can often be found at the Savoy Hotel drinking a cocktail named after her. She cites her career highlights as once teaching Stephen Fry a word and Salman Rushdie the limbo, and scripting Julian Assange's cameo in the 500th episode of The Simpsons. Visit her website at www.kathylette.com to read her blog, follow KathyLetteAuthor on Facebook, @KathyLette on Twitter and @kathy.lette on Instagram.