Just what does it mean to be a girl? Why is it not like being a boy? And why is that a good thing? Guardian columnist Lucy Mangan lifts the lid on being female.
HOPSCOTCH & HANDBAGS is a journey through girlhood, covering all the important issues like family, friendships and first snogs, while not forgetting to take in all the other stuff - like how you'll find you may be judged by your wardrobe rather than your brain, and how reports of the death of sexism in the workplace may be a little premature. Entertaining but informative, you'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll find yourself nodding enthusiastically. If you're a girl, you'll find classic insights here you cannot do without.
From your place within the family ('It's a girl! What a pity!') through the intricacies of what not to wear and who not to talk to, everything you need to know about losing your virginity, how to get along with your mother and get ahead in the workplace, this is a full and frank account of how it really is different for girls.
Intelligent, wonderfully written and extremely funny... a joyous book - India Knight, Sunday Times
Lucy was educated in Catford and Cambridge. She was briefly a very bad solicitor before leaving for a much nicer job in a bookshop. She got work experience at the Guardian and hung around until they gave her a job. She is now a columnist and features writer there and writes for magazines, including Grazia, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan - whenever they ask her.