You Be Mother - Meg Mason

The only thing Abi ever wanted was a family. Only, not the one she’d got. So when she falls pregnant to an Australian exchange student, she cannot pack up her old life in London fast enough, to start all over in Sydney and make her own family.

It is not until Abi arrives, with three-week-old Jude in tow, that she realises Stu is not quite ready to be a father after all. And he is the only person she knows in this hot, dazzling, confusing city, where the job of making friends turns out to be harder than she thought. Until she meets Phyllida – a wealthy, charming, imperious older neighbour, recently widowed and rattling around alone in her enormous house, and as much in need of company as Abi. The unusual pair become fast friends, and as time passes, something nearer mother and daughter. If only Abi had told Phil the truth about her real family from the first day that they met …

A warm, charming, funny and totally irresistible novel about families – the ones we have, the ones we want, and the stories we tell ourselves about them.