NATURAL DISASTER
Coming Summer 2026
Virago UK (pre-order here)
Little, Brown US (pre-order from HBG, Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble or Amazon)
For weeks, she has been saying it will be their special day. One last, perfect day with her children before she returns to work after maternity leave.
What's the worst that can happen?
Unfolding across 24 hours, Natural Disaster is a propulsive, darkly funny and sharply observed novel about the absurd, frustrating, hilarious, precarious, bittersweet, sometimes astonishing challenge - literal, existential - of being a woman, a mother, a wife, a person for one single, entire day.
Praise for Natural Disaster
‘I absolutely loved it . . . Funny, dark, absurd, pin-sharp, insightful, propulsive, unputdownable’ NINA STIBBE
‘Hilarious, brilliant, utterly exhilarating’ MONICA ALI
‘Lisa Owens asks what it is to be a mother - and this is the answer. I absolutely loved it’ LUCY DIAMOND
‘Destined to become a classic’ JESSICA STANLEY
‘A thunderously good novel’ NATHAN FILER
‘Generous, funny, heartbreaking and clever’ LIZZY STEWART
‘Heartbreakingly astute and wincingly relatable… the funniest novel I’ve read in years’ CLAIRE POWELL
‘A genuinely dazzling novel’ DAVID WHITEHOUSE
‘A perfect description of early motherhood, womanhood and love’ OLIVIA POTTS
‘Masterfully drawn …hilarious and harrowing by turns’ EMMA HUGHES
NOT WORKING
Now and again we all lie awake wondering what on earth we're doing with our lives . . . don't we?
Claire Flannery has had more than a few sleepless nights lately. Maybe she shouldn't have walked out of her job with no idea what to do next. Maybe she should think before she speaks -- and maybe then her mother would start returning her calls. Maybe she should be spending more time going to art galleries, or reading up on current affairs, and less time in her pyjamas, entering competitions on the internet. Then again, maybe the perfect solution to life's problems only arises when you stop looking for it . . .
Praise for Not Working
Pin-sharp, utterly addictive - Vogue
A deadpan comic debut for the procrastination generation - Guardian
Full of crackling, voice-of-a-generation observations - Glamour
Sharp and funny . . . exquisitely nails the sensation of being the only one in a group of friends who can't work out what life is supposed to be about - Stylist
Sharp, incisive and laugh-out-loud funny - Observer
Piercingly observant and funny - Express
Agenda-setting . . . Combining the honesty of Bridget Jones with the bang-on social observation of early Sex and the City, this nails it - Sam Baker, The Pool
Quick-witted and sharp-tongued, lovable and flawed, Claire is a super narrator that readers will easily connect with . . . at once universal and unique - Irish Times
Hilarious . . . captures modern life with such pinpoint accuracy that it echoes the Bridget Jones's Diary phenomenon . . . funny, perceptive and entertaining - Daily Express
Imagine the diaries of Adrian Mole as written by the lovechild of Bridget Jones and Dorothy Parker . . . So good, so funny, so of its time - Red
Warm-hearted, clever . . . rich in humour and piercing insight - Metro
Hugely enjoyable - Mail on Sunday
A gem - Irish Times
I don’t tend to laugh out loud at books; this is still one of only a handful of novels that have forced an audible cackle from me. - The Guardian