This is a light hearted story with hilarious moments to make you laugh. What Evie sees to make her crash her car is something bizarre. The next book to be featured on the Jo Whiley Radio 2 Book Club will be The Miseducation of Evie Epworth, the wonderful debut novel by Matson Taylor. The book was released on 14 July and Matson will be on the show on Monday 10 August. It hasn’t helped my phobia, but it made me laugh and I know I won’t forget “that scene” in a long time. Oh this book is the perfect antidote to all of the horrendous things that seem to be on the news this year!

Of course, unlike me, Evie defines Womanhood narrowly based on her own experience. Will she become a farmer's wife as desired by her father, a hairdresser (Christine's idea), will she continue at school and become a teacher (a friend's suggestion) or will she become an Independent Woman like her neighbour, Mrs Scott-Pym's daughter? This will certainly be one of my favourite books of the year. It occurs to me I read so many books about devious characters I'm almost agog when people turn out to be kind and generous. That's certainly the case with Mrs Scott-Pym and her daughter who are there for Evie when she most needs guidance and friendship. One of my favourite books of 2019 was Allegra in Three Parts and it came to mind as I was reading this. Perhaps because both are from the point of view of a smart and sassy young person grappling with the grief of those around them. Evie didn't know her mother, but grows up in the shadow of that loss. Written as a diary from Evie's point of view, this is a wonderful coming of age story, intelligently and delightfully written, infused with humour and original and wonderful characters. As a 60s teenager growing up on a farm, Evie is fresh and naive with an unrestrained zest for life and a character to cheer on as she strives towards her future. Highly recommended!It is the summer of 1962 and sixteen-year-old Evie Epworth stands on the cusp of womanhood. But what kind of a woman will she be? I am Evie, sixteen and a half, as wise as a tree, as tall as time, the fastest milk bottle in East Yorkshire, hurtling towards Womanhood. p 7

The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor was published in Australia by Simon & Schuster and is now available.

Table of Contents

Tight, clever and riddled with wit. Like discovering Adrian Mole or Bridget Jones for the first time.’ Joanna Nadin, author of The Queen of Bloody Everything Mrs Scott-Pym decides that Songs to Unshroud a Scarlet Woman is appropriate spell, but despite following it meticulously, Evie doesn’t see any immediate effect. But in her interactions with Mrs Scott-Pym, she does discover a heretofore unmentioned daughter who resides in London, a chic, stylish, daring woman who looks like someone Evie could emulate. We first meet Evie in 1962, "as old as the hills (16 and a half), as tall as a tree (5ft 11) and as wise as time (perhaps)", just after completing her O-levels and suffering her first hangover, as she races through the countryside in her father's (Off-Limits) MG roadster delivering milk in the Yorkshire countryside. "Soaring and plunging, I am unstoppable. A force of nature. A wild wind-faerie. Will becoming a Woman always feel like this?"