Angels

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I’d always lived a fairly blameless life … up until the day I left my husband and ran away to Hollywood…’ Yes,’ I said. No, actually it wasn’t. She was talking about a different contract, one I hadn’t even started on. There was no point whinging to Frances that all day I’d been frantically sewing up a great deal. She was an über-achiever, well on her way to being made a partner, and she’d made hard work into a performance art. She rarely left the office and popular opinion (not that she was popular, of course) had it that she slept under her desk and washed, like a bag lady, in the staff toilets. Of course I knew. Every time I went into town with Garv we had to call into the electrical department in Brown Thomas and stand before said telly, admiring it in all its twelve thousand pounds’ worth of glory. Though Garv was well paid, he didn’t earn anything like Liam’s telephone-number wedge. And what with our high mortgage, the cost of running two cars, Garv’s addiction to CDs and my addiction to face creams and hand­ bags, funds just didn’t run to flatscreen tellies.

Love the Walsh sisters? Don't miss out on the eagerly awaited sequel to Rachel's Holiday: AGAIN, RACHEL . . . Unlike the rest of her family, Maggie Walsh has always done everything right. At thirty-three she has a proper job, is happily married to Garv and never puts a foot wrong. So why does she make a bolt for Hollywood and her best friend, Emily? Anyway, the day the balloon went up, I was very busy. So busy that my new fitness regime had gone by the board. I’d recently realized that biting my nails was the only exercise was getting so I’d hatched a cunning plan -rather than ring Sandra, my assistant, to come and collect my dictaphone tapes, I’d walk the twenty yards to her office and hand-deliver them instead. But no time for such self-indulgence that particular day. A deal with a film studio was about to fall apart: if the contract wasn’t finalized that week, the actor who’d attached himself to the project was going to walk. Angels centres on Maggie, the oldest and ostensibly most stable Walsh sister. Labelled in the family as the goody-goody, "plain yoghurt at room temperature", she is on the run from a broken marriage. "I've always lived a fairly blameless life," she says. "Up until the day I left my husband and then ran away to Hollywood, I'd never put a foot wrong. Not that many people knew about, anyway." Marian Keyes is a brilliant writer. No one is better at making terrifically funny jokes while telling such important, perceptive and agonizing stories of the heart. She is a genius' Sali HughesverifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Liam’s broken his toe,’ Garv said. ‘His new flatscreen telly fell on it: (Liam and Elaine had every consumer durable known to man -and I stress man, not woman. Give me a mobile phone and a hair-curler and I’m happy. But Garv, being a man, yearned after digital this and Bang & Olufsen that.) ‘So tonight’s off:

Keyes's Bad Place involved alcoholism and a suicide attempt, leading to a successful rehab, out of which she began to write her bestselling novels about lovably dysfunctional Irish women. Currently the 67th richest woman in the UK, with sales of her books topping 5m copies, Keyes is now in the Very Good Place. But she remains committed to the belief that "the best comedy is rooted in despair. Darkness goes alongside proper comedy." But sooner or later, Maggie must face the life - and the people - she left behind, and discover whether finding herself, means losing the people she loves . . . That’s right.’ Lest there be any confusion. ‘Going home.’ Polite but firm. Trying to keep my prone-to-quaver-under­ pressure voice free of tell-tale traces of fear. All across the USA, people are showing up dead. The deaths don't appear to be connected in any way until one particular death occurs and gets the Secretary of Defense's attention. He arranges for a task force to investigate. I’d always lived a fairly blameless life. Up until the day I left my husband and then ran away to Hollywood, I’d hardly ever put a foot wrong. Not one that many people knew about, anyway. So when, out of the blue, everything just disintegrated like wet paper, I couldn’t shake a wormy suspicion that this was long overdue. All that clean living simply isn’t natural.So when she makes a break for Hollywood with her best friend, Emily, her family and friends don't know what to think.