Amazon Big Finish Big Finish Category:  Relationships Publisher: Big Finish ISBN-10:  1844354695 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 240 Copyright: September 2008 ISBN-13: 9781844354696 Carrie Sutton charts her life in the year following the Big Break-Up. What do you do when the One turns out not to be the One after all? When your dream home is snatched away from you, unfinished Schreiber kitchen units and all, and your dog is sent to live with your parents? When you suddenly have to find a flatmate, a way to pay the rent, a reason to keep going and maybe… ultimately… a new boyfriend? Sharp, funny and hugely entertaining, Carrie Sutton charts her life in the year following the Big Break-Up. The bad dates… the good friends… the times when you think you can’t go on and the moment when you realise that you are finally okay on your own. If you’ve just experienced a Big Break-Up and need some cheering up, a bit of friendly advice and a few practical tips – this is the book for you! Reading this book is like talking to your best friend over a large glass of wine. Uplifting, truthful and wise. As a feel-good remedy, it does everything except order you a cab home at the end of the evening! When Carrie left her ex, there was nothing on the market to help her through the bad times, other than the serious ‘bring your own razor blade’ or frivolous ‘getting back to dating’ guides. She wanted a book that would shine a light – and help her laugh along the way. So she decided to write it herself!   Excerpt I’m sitting on the bottom step and it strikes me that I will do it. I’m going to leave; actually going to do it. Oh, holy crap! How in the name of hell have I ended up here? The dog is sitting by the front door returning my befuddled expression with a chirpy look of ‘Are we going to the park now?’ We are not. I pick her up, snuggle her, smell her, and she licks my face clean, something I have never successfully managed to stop her from doing. I sit her on my hip and wander aimlessly round the house looking at our things – my things, his things: the DVDs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the cushions, the computers, the clutter in the hallway, the drawer of useful things. The puppet that was never really mine and the Chinese unit that was never really his. I look at our wedding photographs. It had been a very sunny day in the end, our wedding day, and I’d felt like the luckiest girl in the world. English weather is pretty unpredictable at the best of times and the day before there had been rain of the horizontal variety – we had to get the wedding favours from the car to the hotel in what can only be described as monsoon conditions! It was absolutely lagging it down and the wind (Arctic, I’m quite sure) froze my fingers as I gripped my lacy almond parcels for dear life! I prayed the next day would be warmer as we shimmied past that day’s bride who was now wearing not white, but a strange shade of beige with big chocolate-coloured stains up the back of her frock. She looked a sorry old sight. Her big meringue, dull as it was, had been completely ruined, yet she still stood there smiling, complete with four soggy bridesmaids, a muddy mother-in-law and a drenched flower girl, who all started traipsing after her as she slopped her way out of the hotel garden. They seemed happy enough, but still I prayed for good weather – ‘Please, please, please don’t let that be me!’ – and I got my wish. I didn’t spend the day looking like a drowned rat with half the churchyard up my underskirt, so I felt lucky. I was getting married and I was happy. And the pictures would be beautiful. The pictures seemed so important at the time. The pictures are beautiful. We look great – a little too much like brother and sister if I’m being honest – but great nonetheless, and we’re smiling, everyone’s smiling, everyone’s delighted – and we’re all just a little bit pissed. I wonder if the photos will be all that is left of ‘us’ in the end?

Book of the Week - Timeout
Carrie Sutton is perched on the bottom step of her Victorian townhouse, her playful hound lapping lovingly at her face, when she realises that this is it. This is the moment when she is going to leave ten years of 'half- happy' marriage behind her and make a break for it. Sure, she's scared, but she's also excited at the prospect of starting over. In a brief, blithe account of the ups and downs that follow her big break-up, Sutton provides 'Sex and the City'-esque comfort to those going through similar heartache and confusion as to how to start over. She recounts how refreshing replacing all the things her ex favoured was, the absurdities of internet dating and how scary travelling alone can be with a humorous, best-friend joviality.
So even if you're sulking away at home during the 'crazy period', you'll always have a friends at arms reach in the shape of 'A Girl's Guide'. An ultra-light read for the coming dark nights.


I'm not a complete fruit loop
"I just wanted to say thanks for writing your book. As of today I am entering into week 5 of the break up of my marriage & although I feel like someone's playing hide & seek with my sanity & swing ball with my emotions, your book (which arrived this morning & am already on page 130 of) is making me realise I'm not a complete fruit loop!!! Thanks again & I truly hope your book gains all the success it deserves".
Cat xx

I just devoured your book
"I've just devoured your book in one go- much needed after a tough day! Me and my other half moved back to my mums so I could retrain to be a teacher only he walked out a day before I started my second placement. So it's now v tempting to convince myself I'm 30 living back in my old room, job less, money less and now relationship-less, but I also know deep down this could be the start of really getting to know me after yrs of being in relationships. I'm terrified but will keep reading your book when the low points creep over me! Thanks H xx"
Hannah_shanks@hotmail.com