Leaving Patrick Book

Leaving Patrick marks a new departure into fiction for ace restaurateur and businesswoman Prue Leith. The novel centres round Jane: 36, a successful shipping lawyer, well-paid, ambitious, a gifted and dedicated shopper. She is married to the affable Patrick, a fairly successful restaurateur, who is devoted to her. Yet she seethes with discontent. Somehow it all isn't enough, the money, the comfort, the designer clothes and expensive haircuts. There seems to be no space for passion in their lives. And does she want to have the baby that Patrick longs for? Leaving Patrick plunges straight into this blossoming mid-life crisis. Indeed by the end of the 12-page Prologue, Jane has abruptly left Patrick, and the remaining 400 pages are devoted to a patient and compassionate exploration of the aftershocks of this cataclysm, as Jane begins the long process of transforming her life with a trip to India. Patrick, too, begins a journey, though of a different kind, which brings him at one point close to personal and professional disaster. Prue Leith has produced a highly intelligent if not especially ambitious first novel: she writes fluently and well, and is endlessly interested in the details of her characters' lives. She certainly knows her milieu, that of the well-heeled urban professional classes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we don't learn much about the world of shipping law; but we do pick up a lot of fascinating information about the restaurant business. --Robin DavidsonRead More