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  • A Year in the Life of a Playground Mother

  • A School Gates Comedy, Book 1
  • By: Christie Barlow
  • Narrated by: Karen Cass
  • Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (35 ratings)
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A Year in the Life of a Playground Mother cover art

A Year in the Life of a Playground Mother

By: Christie Barlow
Narrated by: Karen Cass
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Summary

Ever had the pleasure of collecting your children from the school playground? Even if you haven't, this is a hilarious must-listen.

Fed up with the playground mafia at her children’s school, Rachel Young is desperate for a change. With her family and various pets in tow, a picture-perfect village in the countryside beckons. There, Rachel’s children will be able to keep chickens and skip through fields, and she’ll bid farewell to the botoxed, fake-Gucci wearing Mumzillas forever. But at the new school the mums are even worse, and before long, Rachel finds herself contending with a motley crew including Mrs High School Musical, The International Sex God and The Frisky Pensioner. While the children are practicing their sums and perfecting their reading, Rachel is learning some harsh lessons on the other side of the school gates - and ruffling plenty of feathers along the way.

©2014 Christie Barlow (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

‘Well-observed, highly-relatable and wickedly-funny.’ (Cathy Bramley) 

What listeners say about A Year in the Life of a Playground Mother

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Absolute drivel

A series of ridiculous things happen to a character who just lets them happen, with significant amounts of body shaming and bitchiness. None of the characters were likeable. What is the obsession with coats?!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Mum's on a mission

Really enjoyed listening to this book, Karen Cass is such a great narrator and sells the story for the audio book. The story was relatable and managed to get through the book in a day or so. Recommend giving it a listen/read.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Totally unrealistic and nasty!

Not sure where the author did her research for this book. I was looking forward to it but sadly I found it very unrealistic - a mum of 4 with all the time in the world, a bit of a lush and super critical of everyone but herself! She really should go and live in a shack in the middle of nowhere, she may discover a few home truths.

She was horrible to Penelope all the way through. I'm surprised she had ANY friends with her attitude.

I wouldn't waste your time.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

It was very amusing and entertaining!

I laughed a lot and as a stay at home mom could relate to a lot! 🤣🤣🤣

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Sooo funny!

This is hilarious, and I’ve loved every minute of it! A fun story about a group of mothers who meet at the school gate - gossip, bitching, one upmanship through your kids, who gets invited to parties, and who is deliberately left out, how parents can behave worse than their children on the playground! … but in reality it is more about friendship and just what goes on behind peoples doors. It’s about how to be kind and gentle with other people, even when they don’t reciprocate. How to walk away from a fight; how to do the right or nice thing, when you know something about someone else.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

The protagonist isn’t the good person she thinks that she is

There’s a fair bit of nastiness in this disguised as goodness no one comes out looking good really

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Boring

I kept on waiting for something to happen. I was so disappointed with the other 5 stars reviews.
To be fair I listened to this book because Karen read it.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

This person has never been in a school playground

Utterly ridiculous. This author has no clue about how much time small children take. They just seem to be there, she is ‘normal’ whilst having a second home and horses. The character relationships are totally unrealistic and the lead character has no spine.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very funny book with excellent narration

I really enjoyed this book. Lots of giggle/laugh out loud moments. I just love the bus game! Narration was perfect and brought the characters to life

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • 08-01-24

Relatable, funny, but why put up with Penelope 🤷‍♀️

Entertaining and witty, but I just couldn’t understand why Rachel put up with dreadful Penelope for so long. Penelope and her philandering husband were just awful people.

A lot of the characters had terrible traits, but that’s what made it quite realistic. Penelope was definitely the pits. Even the most tolerant person would surely be pushed to breaking point by her.
I’m afraid that I would have thrown her out early on!

Otherwise, a funny tale of school mums and village life.

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