Shire Hell

"Shire Hell" is the hilarious sequel to Rachel Johnson's brilliant novel "Notting Hell" in which Mimi and Ralph have managed to escape the city and move to the idyllic Dorset countryside, but have they moved out of the frying pan and into the fire? Winner of the "Literary Review's" infamous Bad Sex in Fiction Award in 2008. Mimi and Ralph have left social climbing, pushy parenting and their marital problems behind them in London, and moved west to the bucolic green depths of the country. Or so they though. Yes, there's mud and masses of fresh air, plenty of handsome hayseeds and there's Rose, Mimi's new best friend and Dorset's answer to Martha Stewart. But what should be Shire Heaven is, it turns out, just as tricky to navigate as Notting Hell. There's low-level conflict between the racehorses in vintage/Diesel/Ralph Lauren and the brood mares in Barbour/Boden, there's guerrilla warfare between the landowners and eco-warriors and naked hostility between Old Money, New Money and No Money. Yes, in Honeybourne, if you don't have: a landscaped garden with 1,000 acres (minimum) of prime land; a helipad for your trophy guests; an organic farm shop selling sixteen sorts of home-made sausages; four pony-mad polo-playing children; a Literary Festival in your mini-stately; and, a bottom that looks smackable in jodhpurs. Then, well ...you're Mimi, basically. And that's just the start of her problems. Mimi also has a secret. But can she keep it? Rachel Johnson is known for her wickedly funny novels "The Mummy Diaries" and "Notting Hell"; also available from Penguin is her first non-fiction book "A Diary of a Lady".