PLAN B: Accidentally on purpose bump into his wife Sophie. Give yourself a fake name and identity. Befriend Sophie. Actually begin to really like Sophie. Snog Matthew's son (who's the same age as you by the way. You're not a paedophile). Buy a cat and give it a fake name and identity. Befriend Matthew's children. Unsuccessfully. Watch your whole plan go absolutely horribly wrong. On leaving, she was unemployed for 18 months and trying to ignore the job advertisements which her father used to cut out of the paper and send to her, when one arrived which was for a Girl Friday in a Theatrical and Literary Agency. She got the job. EXCLUSIVE: Hot off the success of its record-breaking Netflix film Purple Hearts, Alloy Entertainment has unveiled four new features in development, three of which are based on books that the company has developed in-house. But let's be clear: Helen is not painted as an innocent woman. She knows her affair is wrong, but while caught up in it the mind works differently: this, to me, felt absolutely real and true to human nature and the way our emotions and minds work. There's such clarity about Helen and Sophie, whose perspectives dominate the narrative (Matthew gets a few bits throughout, but it's largely told from the two women's perspectives). And when Helen "wakes up" to her life, the lies she lives and the damage she's done, she's even more real. How do you get rid of a boyfriend you're no longer interested in, but who seems like they'd fall apart if you tried to break it off? I've certainly experienced that before, and Helen's distaste for Matthew's personal habits once he lives with her, once it becomes "real" rather than an affair, is comical because it's so familiar. Fallon does a fine job of balancing sympathy with "just desserts": Helen does deserve it, after all.

The first film, Getting Rid of Matthew, based on the bestselling novel by Jane Fallon, follows Helen, who finally gets her wish after years of begging her lover Matthew to leave his wife. And immediately comes to regret it. Hernán Jiménez ( Love Hard, Elsewhere) will direct from his own script. The 2 women stay friends with the truth all out there and I love it!! Helen also talks about maybe restarting her relationship with the son who is actually closer to her age! She's begged Matthew for years to leave the marriage he's always insisted is empty, but when he suddenly turns up at her flat after Christmas telling her he's left his wife, Sophie, and brought all his stuff to move in with Helen, she realises it's not what she wants at all. In fact, now that Matthew is here in her small home, every day, crowding her, making it impossible for her to do all the things she loved doing in her time alone (time that had previously seemed so depressing), Helen ceases to love Matthew altogether. The affair and broken marriage eventually leaks out at work and Helen finally admits that she has to change her life, starting with her resignation. But when she tries to break up with him, he becomes pitiable and she lets him stay. Her married lover Matthew comes across as a self-centred, arrogant philanderer, with few redeeming features apart from being rich and handsome, although Fallon ensures that other men in the novel don't get quite such a rough ride.The female characters are well-written and believable (for the most part) with a strong underlying value system which comes through. The conundrum for me came with the relationship between Rebecca and Lorna. I was expecting the bitchy nature to persist but some of the directions the plot took threw me a little. However, it was really great to see women actually supporting each other, rather than the undermining, volatile relationships continuing. Matthew is married to Sophie and they have 2 children. One would think it's a perfect marriage and to Sophie it is. Matthew however has been cheating on Sophie with Helen for 4 years. He finally decides to leave Sophie and live with Helen but now Helen isn't sure she wants him any more. Helen has to figure a way to get Matthew out of her house. She makes friends with Sophie (Sophie has no idea who Helen is) and the fun begins. www.janefallon.co.uk. "Jane Fallon". Archived from the original on 27 August 2015 . Retrieved 8 August 2020.

What to do if Matthew, your secret lover of the past four years, finally decides to leave his wife Sophie and their two daughters and move into your flat, just when you're thinking that you might not want him anymore... I have listened to this book at least two times and I know I’ll listen to it again and again. I have only ever listened to one other audiobook more than once, and I’ve listened to a large amount of audiobooks in my time, so that should tell you just how well written this book is. Aside from the comedy aspect, the clever turns of phrase used in place of cliches and dry description add so much color to the narrative, even in droughts of dialogue. Fallon dips into smaller characters’ lives as necessary and in details that matter, leaving out anything the reader might not find useful or interesting as well as anything that doesn’t apply to the current situation. In times that delving into a minor character’s past seems unnecessary, just wait – there’s always a reason, soon to follow, that it has been described. Fallon doesn’t waste words. Bex, Daniel, Isabel and Alex have been best friends for ever, since jolly college years. Years, marriages and couple children later they are still very close. Nothing seem to break their bond. Foursome, despite the title, is NOT erotica. The foursome referred to is a group of friends, two couples, who have known each other and been the mainstay of each others social lives for many years. When one of the marriages breaks up (Alex and Isabel), it has far reaching consequences and causing Rebecca to reexamine whether she every really knew them or anyone for that matter. There is another storyline in the book which revolves around Rebecca’s job and her interactions with a co-worker, Lorna. That particular storyline sums up very accurately why women are their own worst enemies as far as professional lives. I have watched these kind of relationships/interactions in places I have worked and it never ends well. I thought that part of the book was very accurately done.We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused. What to do if Matthew, your secret lover of the past four years, finally decides to leave his wife Sophie and their two daughters and move into your flat, just when you're thinking that you might not want him anymore . . . Two months later, having been told by the English and History of Art departments that they would give her a place but only for the following academic year, she switched to History because they said "start tomorrow". She got a third.

I disliked Alex from the start. Sneaky, petty, clingy. Lorna.. well, you are supposed to warm up to her gradually, but I just couldn't. I won't go about recommending it left and right, but if you stumble upon it I'd say you can give it a go and have an ok reading. Alloy’s romance Purple Hearts, starring Sofia Carson and Nicolas Galitzine, just became the seventh most-watched movie in Netflix history. The film from director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum follows struggling singer-songwriter Cassie (Carson) and troubled Marine Luke (Galitzine) as they agree to marry solely for military benefits, in spite of their many differences.But when tragedy strikes, the line between real and pretend begins to blur.She was educated at St Bernard's Convent School in Slough, Berkshire, and University College London, where she studied history, graduating with a bachelor of arts in 1982. [3] Alongside her studies, she started writing for the history department's magazine, for the university newspaper, London Student, and for Pi Magazine. [4] Career [ edit ] There was something about other people's grief that was so exposing, so personal, that she felt she shouldn't be looking.” When I first started to read this book it reminded me of the ordinary things that happen in everyday life. I thought to myself do I really want to read a book about ordinary things? The reason that it reminds me of everyday life is because I have worked with people like Lorna who make hard for anyone to be around them. In the end I'm glad I persevered because I found the book a really entertaining read. I often see reading as a bit of escapism from ordinary life and here I was with a book about just that.

I really enjoyed the first part of the book where the savage office relationship between Rebecca and Lorna is explored. Lorna is a hateful character, memorable, spiteful and with a fantastic turn in passive aggressive behaviour. I had the urge to throttle her, and, as far as I'm concerned, if an author makes you have a visceral reaction like that to a character then they are doing a fine job. At the same time, she realised that she never wanted to make another TV show again. So she didn't - she gave in her notice and wrote a novel instead. I was given a copy for World Book Night and thought I would give it a go even though I don't usually read chic lit. It isn't badly written or anything, but I didn't like the characters, the storyline or the concept.. and I didn't find it funny. It just isn't my sense of humor but I know several people who think it was really good and amusing (presumably including the World Book Night Panel) so if you like this type of novel (funny chic lit) then its worth a go. It all blows up when Sophie brings Matthew to drinks with Elena. She’s understandably mad and confused and the friendship takes a hiatus. A little later they reconnect and we find out Matthew is with yet another woman!Helen demands more of his time, but initially he refuses to leave his wife Sophie and his two daughters and Helen is left frustrated and alone in her flat with just her TV dinners for company. She then worked for several years as a script editor before ending up as the series script editor at EastEnders. Later she met Tony Garnett at World Productions, who was in talks with the BBC about a new show, This Life, about a group of young solicitors living in the capital. Her previous novels have focussed on the wronged woman, but this book seems to change tact because the wronged woman in this story is actually the one we see least of all. I expected for Isabel to feature heavily in the book but she’s in only around 5 or 6 scenes in total, and even then not for very long. Therefore, while I sympathised with her I couldn’t necessarily feel much for her character. Fallon instead chooses to focus on Alex and Lorna in the book, and their relationship with Rebecca. This made for an interesting dynamic and shows us how hard it can be bringing a new person into an established friendship group. Jane Elizabeth Mary Fallon (born 9 December 1960) [1] is an English author and television producer.